WILLIAM  ELLIOT  GRIFF!  5 


REESE  LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Deceived  ,190     . 

Accession  No.    9.1.3.9.1...  •   Class  No. 


In  the  Mikado's  Service 


BOOKS   BY 
WILLIAM  ELLIOT  GREFFIS. 

The  Romance  of  Discovery. 

The  Romance  of  American  Colonization. 

The  Romance  of  Conquest. 

The  Pathfinders  of  the  Revolution. 


In  the  Mikado's  Service. 


Each  volume  fully  illustrated,     ismo.    $1.50. 


DOWN  THROUGH  THE  GATEWAY    ....     THE  PROCESSION  WENDED.' 


In    the    Mikado's    Service 

A  Story  of  Two  Battle  Summers 
in  China 


BY 


WILLIAM   ELLIOT   GRIFFIS 


AUTHOR  OF  THE   "  ROMANCE  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY         SERIES, 
NDERS  OF  THE  REVOLUTIO 
LITTLE  HOLLAND,"    ETC. 


"THE  PATHFINDERS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION,"    "BRAVE 


Illustrated  by  William  F.  Stecher 


W.    A.    WILDE    COMPANY 

BOSTON    AND     CHICAGO 


Copyright,  iQor, 

BY  W.  A.  WILDE  COMPANY. 

/4//  rights  reserved. 


IN  THE  MIKADO'S  SERVICE, 


To    FRANCES 


91391 


Contents. 


CHAFFER 

I.  JAPANESE  POLITICS  AND  DYNAMITE  .        .  n 

II.  JOZUNA   CROSSES   THE   PACIFIC     .            .           .  .         22 

III.  A  RIDE  ACROSS  THE  CONTINENT       ...  .      34 

IV.  THE  JAPANESE  INVASION  OF  NEW  JERSEY  .      40 
V.  COLLEGE  DAYS  ON  THE  RARITAN     .        .  .      49 

VI.  LOVE  AND  WAR  CLOUDS    .        .        «        .  •      66 

VII.  MARIAN  HOPEWELL  IN  PEKING  .      83 

VIII.  As  A  SHUTTLE,  To  AND  FRO    .  -99 

IX.  ON  BOARD  A  JAPANESE  MAN-OF-WAR  .     116 

X.  THE  SINKING  OF  THE  TRANSPORT     .        ,  .     I31 

XL  FOLLOWING  THE  JAPANESE  ARMY  IN  KOREA  .     147 

XII.  A  NIGHT'S  ADVENTURE  IN  A  KOREAN  VILLAGE    166 

XIII.  THE  BATTLE  OF  PING  YANG     »        .        .'  -     182 

XIV.  THE  FALCON  AT  THE  MASTHEAD      .        .  •     199 
XV.  THE  POEM  FOUND  IN  A  TORPEDO-BOAT    .  .215 

XVI.  THE  SWORD-SHRINE  AT  NIKKO          ...  •    226 

XVI I.  THE  DRAGON-GUARDED  JEWEL  .  .    243 

XVIII.  IN  CHINA  AFTER  THE  WAR       .  -    262 

XIX.  A  BATTLE  WITH  THE  BOXERS   .        .        ,  .    273 

7 


8  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER 


PAGE 

XX.  THE  SIEGE  IN  PEKING       .        .        .    '   .  .  297 

XXI.  "  EXPANSION  "  —  JAPANESE  AND  AMERICAN  .  315 

XXII.  THE  AMERICAN  SOLDIERS  IN  CHINA         .  .  325 

XXIII.  To  THE  RESCUE  OF  THE  LEGATIONS         .  .  334 

XXIV.  THE  RELIEF  OF  THE  LEGATIONS       .        .  .  344 
XXV.  A  MARRIAGE  BEFORE  THE  DRAGON  THRONE  .  356 


Illustrations. 


PAGE 

"  Down  through  the  gateway  ...  the  procession  wended  " 

Frontispiece  60 

"  They  began  to  rush  back "      ',                  .         *         .         .  32 

"The  Japanese  officer's  cap  was  raised  to  Captain  Halley"  133 

The  Battle  of  Ping  Yang   .         .                                    .         •  193 

"  The  Boxers  charged  on  a  run "        »      •  •        «        •        •  29° 


IN  THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 


CHAPTER   I. 

JAPANESE    POLITICS    AND    DYNAMITE. 

O  that  is  what  comes  of  teaching  these  Jap- 
anese  English  and  chemistry,  is  it?" 

The  question  was  asked  in  the  dining  room 
of  the  International  Hotel  on  the  Bund,  or  street 
facing  the  water,  in  Yokohama,  the  port  set  between 
the  white  cone  of  Fuji  San  and  the  sapphire  waters 
of  Mississippi  Bay.  The  questioner  was  Arthur  Van 
Velsor,  a  New  York  lawyer  and  also  a  "  new  Ameri- 
can," fresh  from  the  steamer.  On  a  vacation  trip 
round  the  world,  he  was  visiting  his  quondam  col- 
lege mate  in  Rutgers  College  years  ago,  now  well 
tanned  by  twenty  years  of  Japan's  sunshine. 

Roofed  as  to  his  head  with  what  looked  like  a 
white  sugar  scoop  banded  with  buff  linen,  and  neatly 
cased  in  a  Chinese  tailor's  suit,  was  the  one  ques- 
tioned. He  made  explanation  thus  :  — 

"  Yes,  Jozuna  was  the  brightest  student  among  the 
freshmen,  in  his  class,  in  the  Imperial  University  of 

ii 


12  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

Tokio.  He  beat  all  his  fellows  in  the  laboratory. 
He  was  always  thinking  out  some  new  device.  He 
was  a  superb  penman,  draughtsman,  and  artist; 
withal,  a  man  of  fine  sentiment  and  a  patriot. 
Might  have  become  an  inventor  and  made  a  fortune 
if  he  hadn't  gone  into  violent  politics." 

"  But  what  made  him  want  to  blow  up  cabinet 
ministers  with  dynamite  ? " 

"  Well,  you  see  I'm  not  certain  that  he  did.  But 
in  Japan  here,  where  the  old  feudal  system  has  been 
abolished  less  than  twenty-five  years  ago,  'the  pas- 
sionate instincts  of  clanship '  furnish  mightier  motives 
than  real  patriotism,  as  we  understand  that  word." 

"  What  is  the  point  of  that  remark  ? " 

"  Well,  the  Japanese  profess  to  have  a  written  Con- 
stitution, go  by  majorities,  rule  by  party  government, 
and  all  that,  according  to  the  latest  political  improve- 
ments. Yet  when  the  Nagato  clansmen  were  ousted 
and  a  new  cabinet,  made  up  chiefly  of  Satsuma  poli- 
ticians, came  in,  Jozuna  took  it  as  a  personal  matter. 
He  began  to  lay  in  ammunition  and  make  ready  for 
two  funerals,  one  in  state  in  Tokio  and  one  less  stately 
for  himself." 

"  How  did  he  go  about  it  ? " 

"  Well,  his  shining  exemplar  was  that  '  Jap  of  the 
period'  who,  in  evening  dress  suit,  silk  hat,  patent 
leathers,  and  immaculate  shirt  linen,  used  his  silk 
umbrella  to  hold  a  gaspipe  dynamite  cartridge.  He 


JAPANESE   POLITICS   AND    DYNAMITE.        13 

hurled  the  tube  at  the  Mikado's  minister  of  foreign 
affairs,  when  that  worthy  was  riding  in  his  car- 
riage." 

"  With  what  success  ?  " 

"  Don't  you  know  ?  The  assassin  killed  no  one 
but  himself,  but  the  emperor's  minister,  who  was  sup- 
posed to  favor  foreigners  too  much,  has  only  one  leg 
now." 

"  But  are  you  sure  that  your  pupil  Jozuna,  whom 
you  incubated  in  science,  really  meant  to  break  shell 
as  a  full-fledged  dynamiter  ?  " 

"  Certainly  ;  not  a  particle  of  doubt  in  the  matter. 
Why,  he  was  seen  by  the  government  spies  here  in 
Yokohama  entering  a  hong  —  " 

"  A  what  ?  " 

"Why,  you  tenderfoot,  don't  you  know  the  dis- 
tinction—  the  great  gulf  fixed  on  all  holy  British 
ground  between  a  '  merchant '  and  a  '  shopkeeper '  ? 
The  former  never  hangs  out  a  sign  bearing  anything 
except  the  name  of  the  firm  or  individual.  He  is 
clubbable  in  society  —  a  pewholder  who  prays  in  his 
hat  —  a  veritable  microcosm  of  all  Britain.  At  the 
antipodes  —  yes,  the  nadir  —  is  the  '  shopkeeper,'  who 
retails  under  a  sign.  A  '  hong '  and  a  *  shop  '  are  as 
different  as  Heaven  and  Hades.  Why,  man,  even  if 
there  were  but  two  white  women  in  a  newly  opened 
heathen  seaport  of  China,  dying  of  homesickness,  a 
merchant's  wife  would  no  more  call  on  the  shop- 


14  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

keeper's  wife  than  a  star  would  drop  in  a  well.  A 
*  hong,'  mark  you,  is  a  merchant's  sanctum." 

"  I  see.  But  how  did  the  spies  get  evidence  of 
intent  of  crime  ?  " 

"Why,  in  this  way.  The  hong  of  Mixer  &  Co. 
was  the  only  one  in  the  settlement  that  sold  the  stuff 
now  so  fashionable  in  Japan  for  demolishing  unpopu- 
lar railway  stations  and  obnoxious  politicians.  What 
else  could  the  fellow  have  gone  into  this  particular 
hong  for  ? " 

"Well,  that  is  no  proof  that  your  friend,  Jo-Jo 
—  what  do  you  call  him  ?  —  really  wanted  to  buy 
the  compound  for  evil  intent,  or  had  murder  in  his 
heart.  Was  he  tried  in  court?" 

"  Tried  ?  Why,  man,  you  don't  know  this  coun- 
try ;  at  least,  in  this  year  of  grace  1893,  and  of  Meiji, 
or  civilization,  the  twenty-sixth.  No,  sir;  his  steps 
were  dogged,  and  when  once  on  the  streets,  he  was 
arrested." 

"Tortured  and  made  to  confess,  I  suppose?  I've 
read  frightful  accounts  of  barbarities  practised  on 
the  accused  in  Japanese  prisons.  Quite  equal  to  the 
horrors  of  the  Inquisition  and  the  Middle  Ages." 

"  Yes ;  once  it  was  so.  What  is  more,  I  have  seen 
them  in  my  time ;  but,  thank  God,  Japan  is  past  such 
savagery  now.  The  torturing  of  prisoners  is  twenty 
years  out  of  date.  No ;  Jozuna  was  the  nephew  of 
a  high  officer ;  his  uncle,  still  in  office  in  the  imperial 


JAPANESE   POLITICS  AND   DYNAMITE.        15 

cabinet,  used  his  influence  to  get  his  nephew  off  to 
America,  on  condition  of  his  never  coming  back  to 
these  shores.  So  the  lad  was  shipped  off  on  the 
Pacific  Mail  steamer,  and  is  now  living  quietly  in 
New  York,  I  think." 

"  Do  you  believe  him  guilty  ?  " 

"  How  can  I  believe  otherwise  ?  The  evidence  is 
all  against  the  boy." 

"  Nonsense  !  all  circumstantial,  with  suspicion  and 
malice  in  the  heat  of  politics  behind  the  charge,  I'll 
wager ! "  said  the  lawyer,  with  warmth.  "  While 
clan  government  by  irresponsible  ministers  rules  this 
country,  I  despair  of  its  civilization.  The  idea  of 
Japan's  wanting  recognition  by  Western  and  Christian 
nations  as  an  equal !  Bah !  But,  tell  me,  did  you 
see  Jozuna  before  he  was  spirited  away  ? " 

"  No,  except  for  a  half  minute.  Hadn't  seen  him 
for  years.  When  he  left  school,  which  he  had  to 
do  early  in  his  course,  he  was  engaged  for  a  while 
in  railway  surveying,  and  I  lost  sight  of  him ;  but 
one  day,  while  on  the  hatoba,  or  landing  stage,  a 
sampan  was  putting  off  for  the  City  of  Peking,  which 
had  steam  up  for  San  Francisco  —  " 

"  Sampan  ?  Remember,  old  chum,  I  don't  carry 
a  dictionary  of  Pidgin-English.  Explain." 

"  Oh,  yes.  A  sampan  is  —  well,  literally,  '  three 
boards.'  I  might  be  scientific  and  call  it  a  'for- 
tuitous concourse '  of  planks  in  the  form  of  a  boat. 


1 6  IN  THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

But,  really,  a  Japanese  sampan  is  pretty  and  clean, 
driven  by  sculls  and,  with  expert  fellows,  a  racer." 

"  All  right;  go  ahead." 

"  Well,  where  was  I  ?  Oh,  yes.  In  the  sampan 
sat  an  elderly  officer  of  some  sort  with  Jozuna.  Sud- 
denly, seeing  me,  the  young  man  bade  the  scullers 
rest  their  bent  oars  on  the  wooden  pins  a  moment. 
Then  he  called  out  in  English,  *  Teacher !  teacher ! 
please  accept  this,  and  think  of  me ! '  putting  in  my 
hand  a  scroll  of  paper.  *  Believe  that  I  am  a  goose. 
I'll  ask  no  more.' 

"That  was  all.  In  a  moment  more  the  sculls 
churned  the  water  and  the  boat  shot  off.  I  knew 
not  what  was  meant,  for  I  had  then  heard  nothing 
of  the  accusation,  though  from  the  Japanese  stand- 
ing around  I  soon  learned  the  whole  story  thus  end- 
ing in  banishment  and  exile.  A  half  hour  later  I 
secured  all  the  details  from  the  returned  govern- 
ment officer,  whom  I  recognized  as  an  old  ac- 
quaintance." 

"  And  believed  the  story,  I  suppose  ?  What  was 
in  the  scroll  he  handed  you  ?  " 

"  I  have  it  hung  up  on  my  wall,  mounted  on  silk  as 
kakemono  and  memento.  It  is  a  picture  of  a  squad- 
ron of  wild  geese  sailing  across  the  night  sky  under 
the  full  moon.  Come  up  in  my  room  and  see  it." 

Even  from  the  view  point  of  one  familiar  with  the 
matchless  creations  of  native  artists,  from  the  days 


\ 


JAPANESE   POLITICS   AND   DYNAMITE.        17 

of  Kano  to  those  of  Hokusai,  the  sketch  of  Jozuna 
(it  was  from  the  young  man's  hand  and  so  signed) 
was  a  fair  one.  Certainly  it  was  very  spirited.  In 
the  centre,  the  great  silver  luminary  had  emerged  in 
full  orb  from  the  shadowy  mass  of  clouds  on  the  left, 
making  full  splendor  in  a  summer  night's  sky.  The 
moon  hung  far  above  the  outlines  of  mountains  and 
forest  and  the  glint  of  rippling  streams  below. 
There  were  in  the  landscape  suggestions  of  habi- 
tations and  of  watchers  of  the  great  mirror  hung 
in  the  sky.  These  lent  a  human  interest  to  the 
scene. 

But  the  charm  and  potency  of  the  picture  was  in 
the  movement  depicted.  Far  off  to  the  right  was 
the  scarcely  recognizable  rear  of  a  line  of  passionate 
and  winged  life,  making  a  bridge  between  inky 
night  and  day-like  splendor.  Buried  at  one  end 
in  the  blackness  of  darkness,  the  van  emerged  into 
momentary  resurrection  of  flashing  silver.  It  was  a 
serried  array  of  wild  geese.  One  by  one  appearing 
from  the  dexter  side,  these  trumpeters  of  the  air 
bathed  themselves  in  the  glory  of  the  sun's  reflector. 
Then  they  disappeared  into  sinister  oblivion,  as  of 
life  from  death.  In  that  one  moment  of  white 
glory,  their  flashing  plumage  seemed  to  excel  even 
the  serene  radiance  which  they  borrowed.  Yet  the 
intensity  was  but  for  a  moment,  for  it  was  immedi- 
ately lost  in  the  deepest  blue. 


i8  IN  THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

"  By  Jove,  that's  fine !  What  did  he  mean  by  giv- 
ing you  a  picture  like  this?  Any  personal  signifi- 
cance ?  "  asked  the  visiting  friend. 

"Oh,  he  did  nothing  more  than  what  his  coun- 
trymen do  habitually.  It  is  their  custom  to  make 
pretty  little  gifts  on  all  occasions,  especially  at  part- 
ing with  a  friend." 

"Yes,  but  was  there  not  some  sentiment  in  the 
subject  itself,  apart  from  the  gift  ? " 

"  Hardly,"  responded  the  owner  and  pedagogue, 
to  whom,  to  speak  plainly,  art  was  a  dead  language. 
To  him  the  value  of  a  picture  was  chiefly  in  the 
frame.  As  to  the  rich  symbolism  of  Japanese  art, 
despite  long  residence  in  the  "  Land  of  Dainty  Deco- 
ration "  and  of  passionate  and  purifying  love  of 
nature,  he  was  a  total  stranger. 

"  No ;  the  painters  have  painted,  and  the  poets 
have  raved  over  the  moonlight  for  ages.  On  bright 
nights,  you'll  find  thousands  of  Japs  —  " 

"  Hold  on  there,  don't  say  that  abominable  word 
'  Jap '  again.  Now,  chum,  you  will  acknowledge  it 
isn't  fair  to  the  Japanese.  Why  don't  we  say  '  Brit ' 
for  British,  *  Eng '  for  English,  or  '  Germ '  for  Ger- 
man. Do  say  Japanese." 

"  Beg  pardon,  you're  right,  my  legal  friend.  I'll 
swear  off  from  saying  '  Jap  '  and  be  less  curt  and 
more  polite.  Well,  to  resume,  you'll  find  thousands 
of  Japanese  down  on  the  bridges  and  up  on  their 


JAPANESE   POLITICS   AND   DYNAMITE.        19 

balconies,  gazing  at  the  moon.  And,  I  must  say, 
there  seems  nothing  more  graceful  in  their  eyes  than 
a  wild  goose.  Nor  are  they  far  wrong.  But  as  to 
any  special  meaning  in  the  gift,  apart  from  friend- 
ship, I  don't  suspect  any." 

"  Kuruma !  "  This  was  the  word  shouted  into  the 
room  by  the  hotel  "  boy,"  who  announced  further  that 
two  jin-riki-shas  were  in  waiting. 

The  conversation  ceased,  and  as  the  two  went  out 
they  saw  standing  a  brace  of  men  in  the  shafts,  each 
of  whom  was  reenforced  by  two  lithe  runners  to  go 
tandem.  Kamakura,  with  the  great  image  of  Dai 
Butsu  and  all  of  nature's  glories  on  hill,  plain,  and 
seashore,  and  the  relics  of  Japan's  mediaeval  capital, 
was  to  be  visited  and  "  done  "  before  evening. 

That  night  the  friends  parted,  the  pedagogue  to 
resume  his  daily  grind  at  school,  and  the  globe-trotter 
to  steam  away  for  Hong  Kong,  India,  and  around 
the  world  indeed,  but  by  way  of  Kobe  and  Nagasaki. 
He  would  visit  Royal  Seymour  Burnham,  an  old 
friend,  a  silk  merchant,  and,  like  himself  and  his  late 
comrade  at  the  hotel  table,  one  of  the  several  Rut- 
gers graduates  in  Japan. 

On  "the  natty  little  treaty  port"  of  Kobe,  as  his 
old  classmate  had  first  described  it  in  his  letters  years 
ago,  Arthur  Van  Velsor,  the  New  York  lawyer, 
looked  with  amazement.  Instead  of  one  row  of 
foreign  houses,  fresh  and  staring  new,  near  the 


20  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

native  town  of  respectable  size,  as  the  photograph 
once  showed,  he  now  looked  on  a  glorious  city. 

Awaiting  him  with  hearty  welcome  was  a  portly 
gentleman  well  into  his  forties,  who  shook  his  hand 
warmly.  The  two  friends  had  not  met  since  "on 
the  banks  of  the  old  Raritan  "  they  had  two  decades 
ago  drunk  cider  at  the  Piscataway  press,  rowed  with 
the  Septem  Virs  on  the  river,  and  sung  college  songs 
on  the  campus.  Burnham,  —  "  luckiest  fellow  in  the 
class,"  as  Van  Velsor  dubbed  him,  —  had  won  (away 
from  him)  and  wedded  the  prettiest  girl  in  New  Jer- 
sey's fairest  county.  Then,  lured  by  the  tales  of  the 
Japanese  in  Rutgers  of  the  wonders  of  the  silkworm, 
he  sailed  for  the  Land  of  the  Rising  Sun  soon  after 
graduation.  Beginning  modestly,  he  had  learned 
the  ways  of  the  natives  and  the  aliens,  had  watched 
the  markets  on  both  sides  of  the  sea,  and  had  slowly 
but  steadily  reached  prosperity.  As  the  Japanese 
say,  he  had  "  raised  a  mountain."  His  oldest  son, 
Clarence,  now  nineteen,  had  left  him  to  cross  the 
sea  and  come  under  Alma  Mater's  wings  at  New 
Brunswick. 

"  You  ask  me  about  your  boy  Clarence  ?  Well,  he 
is  in  the  same  class  with  mine,"  said  Van  Velsor, 
"  and  thriving  finely.  His  tastes  are  markedly  liter- 
ary. Shouldn't  wonder  if  he  turned  out  a  famous 
author,  Mrs.  Burnham,"  he  added,  turning  to  the 
hostess. 


JAPANESE   POLITICS  AND   DYNAMITE.       21 

"  Why  ? "  does  some  one  ask. 

With  so  many  topics  of  mutual  interests  the  con- 
versation prolonged  itself  until  well  into  the  middle 
of  the  morning.  Then  the  two  friends  went  out  for 
a  stroll  to  the  Nunobiki  waterfalls,  still  chatting  over 
things  American.  In  the  afternoon  after  lunch,  or 
"  tiffin  "  as  they  call  it  in  Japan,  the  two  old  college 
friends  took  a  trip  to  Kioto  to  see  the  sights.  In- 
deed, Royal  Burnham  gave  up  business  and  every- 
thing else  to  entertain  his  friend  during  the  several 
days  which  they  happily  spent  together. 

Van  Velsor  resumed  his  functions  of  globe-trotter 
and  sight-seer  by  mounting  again  the  deck  of  one  of 
the  Japanese  steamers  plying  to  Nagasaki.  He  was 
to  go  to  Hong  Kong,  expecting  thence  to  sail  north- 
ward to  Shanghai,  visiting  the  ports,  and  after  seeing 
Peking  to  get  home  if  possible  through  Asia  and 
Europe  by  way  of  Siberia  and  Russia. 

Let  us  now  look  at  Jozuna  and  Clarence  Burnham, 
who  had  before  this  travelled  in  the  other  direction, 
and  part  way,  at  least,  around  the  world. 


CHAPTER   II. 

JOZUNA    CROSSES   THE    PACIFIC. 

WE  must  now  tell  the  story  of  the  young 
Japanese,  Jozuna,  and  of  his  adventures 
on  sea  and  land. 

He  had  often,  in  his  student  days,  when  all  the 
boys  in  Japan  were  in  a  fever  of  excitement  about 
seeing  America,  dreamed  of  crossing  the  Pacific. 
Now,  in  Japanese  dreams,  the  dragon  is  the  engine 
of  locomotion.  More  than  once,  while  asleep,  he 
had  imagined  himself  astride  of  one  of  the  soaring 
monsters,  careering  over  mountain-tops  and  across 
seas,  but  as  often  woke  up  and  found  himself  inside 
the  quilts,  instead  of  on  the  salt  water. 

To-day,  on  real  shipboard,  he  was  moving  to 
America,  a  lonely  exile.  Apparently,  he  knew  not 
a  soul  on  board.  Long  and  eagerly  he  gazed  on  his 
home  land,  upon  the  peerless  Mount  Fuji,  then 
capped  with  gathering  vapors.  After  his  native 
shores  had  vanished  below  the  earth's  curve,  and 
even  Fuji's  crest  was  under  the  horizon,  Jozuna's 
heart  sank,  and  for  an  hour  he  was  in  the  depths  of 

22 


JOZUNA  CROSSES  THE   PACIFIC.  23 

misery,  yet  only  to  rise  up  again  in  the  joy  of  hope 
and  with  the  determination  of  a  stoic. 

"  For,"  said  he  to  himself,  "  now  I  am  free.  I  am 
more  my  own  master  than  if  I  remained  at  home.  I 
shall,  at  least,  not  be  obliged  to  serve  in  the  army  as 
conscript,  like  so  many  of  my  schoolmates  and  fel- 
low-countrymen. Nevertheless,  I  hope  some  day  to 
follow  the  flag  of  sunshine.  Many  of  my  friends 
would  give  a  ringer  if  they  had  my  privilege  of 
travelling  across  the  great  deep  to  the  Western  world. 
Have  I  not  heard  how,  in  the  old  days,  not  a  few 
risked  their  lives  to  get  on  board  an  American  ship 
to  see  what  they  called  the  '  barbarian  '  countries  ?  " 

"  Why,  you  are  thinking  out  loud,  old  fellow,  and 
still  calling  us  Americans  '  barbarians '  too,  are 
you  ? " 

Jozuna  felt  a  gentle  slap  on  his  shoulder,  and,  turn- 
ing halfway  round  in  mild  anger,  was  greeted  with 
a  hearty  laugh.  At  once  he  recognized  his  young 
American  friend,  Clarence  Burnham,  with  whom  he 
had  grown  up  as  an  almost  constant  playmate  when 
he  and  his  parents  had  lived  in  Hiogo,  the  great 
Japanese  city  adjoining  Kobe. 

"  So  we  are  fellow-voyagers  and  shipmates,  are 
we  ?  "  said  Jozuna.  "  I  am  glad  of  it." 

"  Yes,  old  fellow ;  but  what  made  you  talk  about 
4  barbarians '  ?  " 

"  Well,  I  was  only  thinking  aloud.     Seeing  Mount 


24  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

Fuji  sink  below  the  horizon  made  me  go  down  very 
low  in  my  mind.  It  was  like  catching  cold  in  the 
heart.  Then  the  thought  that  I  was  going  to  see 
America  so  raised  me  up  again,  that  my  story  is  like 
that  which  they  tell  in  the  province  of  Omi.  There, 
they  say  that  the  earth  sunk  down  to  form  Lake 
Biwa,  while  the  land  rose  up  to  make  Fujiyama," 
and  again  Jozuna  laughed. 

"  Come,  come,  Jozuna,  that  won't  do,  you  can't  get 
out  of  it  in  that  way.  Explain  about  that  word  '  bar- 
barian.' I  thought  you  were  civilized.  You  know 
you  do  not  like  us  Americans  ever  to  use  the  word 
'  native '  when  speaking  of  you  Japanese,  though  we 
ourselves  think  it  good  English,  and  are  not  ashamed 
of  it." 

"  I  will,  and  I  beg  a  thousand  pardons  of  you.  I 
was  thinking,  how  when  your  Commodore  Perry's  ship 
first  came  to  Shimoda,  our  famous  Shoin  risked  his 
life  to  get  on  board  the  frigate  Mississippi,  and  how, 
when  he  failed,  he  was  caught  and  imprisoned  in  a 
cage.  Of  course,  I  had  to  think  in  the  language  of 
that  day,  when  our  fathers  never  spoke  of  Americans 
as  anything  but  '  hairy  foreigners  '  and  '  barbarians  ' ; 
yes,  and  '  crab-writing  barbarians '  too,  because  they 
seemed  to  us  Japanese  to  write  backward.  Of 
course,  in  those  dark  ages,  we  Japanese  thought 
everything  done  in  our  country  was  exactly  right,  and 
that  what  you  Americans  did  was  upside  down.  But 
you  forgive  me,  don't  you  ?  " 


JOZUNA   CROSSES  THE   PACIFIC.  25 

"Why,  certainly,  Jo,"  said  Clarence  Burnham, 
resuming  his  old  boyish  familiarity  as  to  names. 
"  I'll  forgive  you.  '  Put  it  thar  and  shake,'  as  the 
sailors  say,"  and  they  shook  hands,  both  laughing. 

From  that  time  forth  the  two  lads  were  true  ship- 
mates. Each  one  tried  to  add  to  the  other's  amuse- 
ment and  to  make  the  sixteen  days'  passage  as 
pleasant  as  possible.  After  hours  spent  in  reading, 
games,  telling  stories,  or  other  amusements,  or  in  long 
walks  on  the  ship's  cleanly  scoured  deck,  Jozuna, 
who  seemed  to  have  sharper  eyes  than  his  American 
friend,  or  who  loved  nature  better,  pointed  out  many 
things  that  no  one  else  seemed  to  notice.  It  was  he 
that  first  discovered  the  tremendous  fleet  of  little 
jellyfish,  or  "  Portuguese  men-of-war,"  through  which 
the  steamer  was  ploughing  or  churning  its  way.  The 
deep  greenish  blue  of  the  ocean  was  handsomely  set 
off  by  millions  of  these  spreaders  of  opaline  and 
translucent  sails,  through  which  the  sunlight  sifted. 

"  What  do  you  call  these  tiny  kurage  ? "  asked 
Jozuna. 

"  Oh,  our  common  name  is  the  '  Portuguese  men-of- 
war,'  "  said  Clarence,  who  at  once  became  interested 
in  looking  at  the  blues,  reds,  and  greens  of  these 
creatures  that  seem  to  be  made  up  of  gelatine  and 
water. 

"Portuguese  men-of-war?"  asked  Jozuna,  "what 
a  name  !  Why  do  you  call  them  that  ? " 


26  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

"Don't  know,"  said  Clarence,  " unless  it  be  because 
they  carry  powerful  batteries  of  nettles.  If  you 
should  ever  get  a  broadside  of  the  poison  of  these 
jellyfishes  while  you're  out  swimming,  you'd  think 
it  was  a  round  of  grape-shot  fired  into  you." 

"  No  doubt.  I  never  felt  it  myself,  but  I  remem- 
ber a  fisherman  howling  with  pain.  He  had  been 
attacked,  or  shall  I  say,  rammed,  or  fired  upon  by 
one  of  these  '  men-of-war,'  as  you  call  them.  But 
oh,  look  there!" 

Jozuna's  sharp  eyes  had  again  caught  the  prize 
sight  of  the  day.  It  was  a  school  of  whales  seen 
over  the  port  side  of  the  steamer,  three-quarters  of 
a  mile  away,  perhaps.  A  mother-whale  had  come 
up  to  blow.  It  was  the  spouting  of  the  aerated 
water  that  first  attracted  Jozuna's  attention.  But 
while  they  were  looking  the  two  cubs,  or  little 
whales,  began  to  appear,  blowing  their  tiny  geyser- 
like  streams  as  if  for  dear  life.  Soon,  in  their  frolic, 
they  were  leaping  over  their  mother's  back. 

"  How  I  wish  our  Tosa  whale  catchers  were  here 
with  their  nets.  They'd  have  three  prizes  at  least." 

"Nets?"  said  a  bystander.  "What  can  they  do 
with  nets,  without  harpoons  or  bomb  lances?" 

Then  Jozuna  went  on  to  tell  the  story  of  how, 
when  a  boy,  he  had  visited  his  uncle  in  Tosa,  a  whal- 
ing master  who  employed  scores  of  fishermen  in  cap- 
turing whales  with  great  nets  made  of  ropes,  four 


JOZUNA   CROSSES  THE   PACIFIC.  27 

inches  thick,  and  with  meshes  four  feet  square. 
The  great  Black  Tide,  the  Gulf  Stream  of  the  Pa- 
cific, which  runs  up  from  below  the  Philippines, 
passes  Japan  and  bends  over  toward  the  Aleutian 
and  Kurile  islands,  is  the  great  highway,  the  feeding 
and  play-ground  of  the  whales.  The  sentinels  in 
the  fishing  villages,  watching  on  the  cliffs,  would 
give  the  signal  to  the  fleet  of  boats,  which  were 
rapidly  sculled  out  to  the  scene  of  action.  While 
the  scullers  looked  after  the  management  of  the 
craft,  the  net  men  joined  forces  and,  quickly  pay- 
ing out  the  seine,  formed  a  semicircle.  Then 
rapidly  moving  toward  the  shore,  they  were  pretty- 
sure  to  enclose  one  of  the  monsters  of  the  deep, 
which,  when  in  shoal  water,  was  quickly  finished  with 
lances  and  heavy  arrows  skilfully  shot  into  vital 
parts. 

Jozuna  then  went  on  to  tell  how,  after  landing  the 
whale,  they  cut  up  the  blubber  and  made  oil,  and 
how  the  meat  was  chopped  up  and  sold  in  the  shops. 
The  titbits  were  sent  to  the  officers  of  the  castle 
town ;  for,  strange  to  say,  while  many  of  the  gentry 
considered  sweet  potatoes  as  vulgar  and  beneath  the 
diet  of  a  gentleman,  there  were  some  who  really 
delighted  in  whale  flesh,  and,  as  to  certain  cuts  of  it, 
thought  themselves  epicures. 

"  Will  you  explain  to  me,  sir,  something  I  was  told 
in  Tokio  ? "  said  one  of  the  gentlemen  tourists  on 


28  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

board,  as  he  adjusted  his  eyeglasses  and  gave  a 
quizzing  look  at  the  Japanese. 

"  With  pleasure,"  promptly  replied  Jozuna. 

"  I  was  told  by  a  friend  to  go  to  a  Japanese  restau- 
rant and  call  for  '  Mountain  Whale,'  well  cooked,  and 
seasoned  with  soy." 

At  this  Jozuna  laughed  uproariously. 

"  I  don't  wonder  you  laugh,"  said  the  gentleman ; 
"  I  did  the  same  before  I  went,  wondering  what  a 
whale  could  be  doing  up  in  the  mountains.  But 
when  the  whale  steak  was  served  to  me,  I  found  it 
was  venison,  and  of  good  quality,  too.  But  why  in 
the  world  do  they  call  it  '  mountain  whale '  ? " 

"Oh,"  said  Jozuna,  "my  friend  Mr.  Burnham  here 
tells  me  that  you  have  people  in  America  who  profess 
never  to  taste  meat  on  Friday.  But  don't  you  sup- 
pose that  once  in  a  while  a  man  might  possibly  eat 
flesh,  though  he  called  it  fish,  or  swallowed  it  under 
some  other  name  ? " 

"  I  shouldn't  wonder,"  laughed  the  tourist  ques- 
tioner. "  One  touch  of  nature,  you  know.  Does 
that  explain  the  situation  in  Japan?" 

"  Well,  this  I  know,"  said  Jozuna,  "  many  of  our 
Buddhists  believe  it  is  perfectly  right  to  partake  of 
whale,  or  fish,  or  the  flesh  of  certain  wild  animals, 
who  deem  it  wicked  to  eat  deer  or  any  domestic 
creature.  Yet  they  know  how  to  get  over  the  diffi- 
culty by  calling  their  venison  '  mountain  whale.'  " 


JOZUNA  CROSSES  THE   PACIFIC.  29 

"Yes,"  said  Clarence  Burnham,  "that  kind  of  a 
trick  must  have  been  in  vogue  a  good  while  ago,  for 
I  have  read  the  sign  on  the  Japanese  restaurants  in 
every  place  in  Japan  I  have  visited.  You  can  get 
'  mountain  whale '  almost  anywhere,  but  I'll  wager 
it  is  not  always  venison.  Sometimes  it's  wild  boar, 
and  if  it  isn't  sometimes  common  beef,  then  I  don't 
know  anything." 

The  conversation  was  interrupted  here  by  a  perfect 
storm  of  yells.  These  proceeded  from  the  steerage, 
where  hundreds  of  Chinamen  were  being  brought 
over  as  passengers  to  America.  It  sounded  as  if  a 
great  riot  of  some  sort  had  broken  out.  The  young 
men  rushed  forward  to  look  down  the  hatchways 
and  see  what  was  going  on. 

Getting  a  coign  of  vantage,  they  were  able  to  look 
upon  what  resembled  in  its  sights  and  sounds  a  pan- 
demonium. Scores  of  Chinese  men  were  throwing 
about  their  wooden  dishes,  upsetting  tubs  of  boiled 
rice  and  bowls  of  cooked  fish,  meanwhile  yelling  and 
shouting  at  the  top  of  their  throats.  A  number  of 
the  lustier  fellows  seemed  to  be  trying  to  batter  down 
the  doors  that  shut  them  in,  and  which,  when  open, 
led  into  the  gangway  by  which  one  could  reach  other 
parts  of  the  ship. 

"What's  the  matter?"  asked  Clarence  of  one  of 
the  ship's  officers,  who  did  not  seem  in  the  least 
disturbed. 


30  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

"  Oh,  nothing  but  what  always  happens  when  we 
put  on  board  a  green  lot  of  Chinamen  just  off  the 
paddy  fields.  Old  passengers  know  better,  but  these 
fellows,  only  a  few  days  ago,  were  tramping  in  their 
rice  swamps,  toiling  outdoors  from  morning  till 
night.  They  come  on  board  and,  for  the  first  time 
in  their  lives,  have  all  they  want  to  eat  or  can  pos- 
sibly stow  away.  Their  eyes  are  bigger  than  their 
bellies,  and  after  four  or  five  days  of  stuffing  without 
any  regular  exercise,  they  lose  their  appetites,  which, 
for  them,  is  a  new  thing.  Not  knowing  what  is  the 
matter  with  them,  they  loathe  their  food.  Then,  at 
once,  they  think  that  something  has  been  put  in  their 
'  chow  '  to  make  them  sick,  and  that  the  ship's  officers 
are  doing  this  to  make  money  off  them. 

"  But,  look !  "  said  the  officer,  as  he  pointed  to  the 
storeroom  where  the  clean  rice,  the  dried  fish,  and 
various  other  indescribable  articles,  wholesome  but 
uninviting,  that  make  up  the  ordinary  Chinese  diet, 
were  stored ;  "  these  are  bought  from  honest  Chinese 
purveyors,  and  we  give  these  passengers  better  than 
what  they  are  accustomed  to,  and  all  they  can  pos- 
sibly want.  Dyspepsia  is  a  new  disease  to  people  of 
this  sort.  Indeed,  it  is  almost  as  aristocratic  as  the 
gout.  Then  there  are  '  lawyers'  among  them  that  stir 
up  the  crowd  and  excite  them.  We  always  know  what 
is  coming  and  prepare  for  it  by  shutting  the  gang- 
way and  getting  the  hose  ready.  All  of  a  sudden 


JOZUNA   CROSSES  THE   PACIFIC.  31 

there  is  an  explosion,  just  as  you  see  now,  but  it  is 
all  right,  the  water  will  be  turned  on  in  a  minute." 

"  What  do  you  mean,  sir  ?  " 

"  Oh,  we  have  only  to  bring  the  hose  to  bear  and 
give  them  a  wetting  with  cold  water,  and  they  will 
cool  off.  Here  they  come.  Stand  aside,  please." 

Jozuna  and  Clarence  turned  aside  just  in  time,  for 
along  hurried  two  burly  sailors  dragging  the  hose 
tipped  with  a  brass  branch  pipe,  which  they  pointed 
toward  the  doors,  then  well  belabored  on  the  other 
side  by  the  angry  leaders  of  the  mob. 

"All  ready!  "  cried  the  officer. 

"  Ay,  ay,  sir,"  said  the  man  with  the  branch  pipe. 

Two  other  sailors  now  went  forward  in  readi- 
ness to  lift  the  iron  hasp  that  should  open  the  door 
quickly.  The  water  already  turned  on  was  issuing 
in  a  lively  stream,  which  the  pipe-holder  temporarily 
turned  into  a  scupper. 

"  Open !  "  cried  the  officer. 

Thereupon  each  jacky,  turning  the  hasp,  threw 
back  his  half  of  the  double  door,  then  stood  deftly 
behind  it.  So  suddenly  did  the  doors  fly  apart  that 
a  half-dozen  Chinamen,  pressed  by  their  pushing 
comrades  behind  them,  fell  forward  pell-mell  in  a 
heap  in  the  gangway.  It  was  as  if  a  sausage  had 
suddenly  been  squeezed  of  its  contents.  At  the 
same  moment  the  pipe-holder  turned  the  stream  of 
cold  water  full  into  the  faces  and  all  over  the  crowd. 


32  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

The  effect  was  electric.  The  yells  ceased.  The 
Chinamen  literally  turned  tail.  They  began  to  rush 
back  again,  while  the  sprawling  fellows  picked  them- 
selves up  and  tried  to  get  inside.  The  pipe-holder, 
directed  by  the  officer,  seeing  the  results  of  the  first 
hydropathic  application,  raised  the  stream  and  began 
to  sprinkle  and  douse  the  crowd  far  inside,  so  that, 
scattering  like  sheep,  they  quickly  relieved  the  press- 
ure. Then,  dragging  the  hose  and  branch  pipe 
clear  inside  the  door,  the  hoseman  was  able  to  play 
skilfully  over  the  entire  mass.  The  fun  did  not  last 
very  long,  for  the  dyspeptic  rebels  quickly  turned 
into  cool-headed  men  and  sought  their  berths  and  the 
space  below.  In  five  minutes  the  battle  was  won. 
It  was  a  new  sort  of  prescription  for  indigestion. 

"  Well,  that  is  a  water  cure,"  said  one  of  the  pas- 
sengers. "  Is  it  always  infallible  ?  " 

"  Never  knew  it  to  fail,"  said  the  officer.  "This  is 
my  seventh  experience,  and  our  men  seem  to  like  the 
job." 

Evidently  the  old  sailors,  however,  took  it  more  as 
a  matter  of  routine  duty  than  of  novelty,  for  on  the 
face  of  only  one  was  there  a  grin,  and  he  was  a  new 
man.  The  others  quickly  and  quietly  opened  the 
scuppers  and  turning  off  the  water  began  to  swab 
the  deck,  not  only  of  the  extra  moisture,  but  of  the 
broken  dishes  and  pecks  of  rice  and  boiled  fish  which 
the  surfeited  Chinamen  had  kicked  over  in  their  dis- 


THEY  BEGAN  TO   RUSH  BACK.' 


JOZUNA   CROSSES  THE   PACIFIC.  33 

content.  Heaved  into  the  ocean,  Neptune  and  all 
his  mermaids  profited  by  the  feast. 

Thus  day  by  day  passed,  until  at  last  the  four 
thousand  miles  of  brine  had  been  traversed,  and  al- 
ready in  propitiation  of  the  gods  of  land  and  sea, 
the  Chinese  pagans  were  casting  overboard  sham 
money  made  of  gilt  paper  and  other  offerings. 

"  What  fools  their  gods  must  be  to  be  deceived  by 
such  stuff.  Why,  it  isn't  even  good  gold-leaf,  but 
only  '  Dutch  metal/  downright  brass,"  said  Jozuna, 
who  had  not  attended  the  Christian  missionary  schools 
in  vain. 

All  were  expecting  a  glorious  landfall,  hoping  to 
see  the  Golden  Gate.  Yet  as  not  every  one  first  rec- 
ognizes Japan  by  catching  a  glimpse  of  the  peerless 
mountain  or  the  superb  summer  green  of  the  land- 
scape, as  not  every  one  first  descries  the  Emerald  Isle 
in  a  robe  worthy  of  its  name,  so,  California,  the  "  Land 
of  the  Mountain  of  Gold,"  of  which  Jozuna  had  so 
often  dreamed,  was  first  discerned  as  a  low  strip  of 
yellow  mud  partly  visible  through  overhanging  fog. 
Before  the  vapory  pall  lifted,  they  were  well  into  San 
Francisco  Bay ;  but  soon  landmarks,  spires,  and 
stately  edifices  were  clear  to  the  view. 


CHAPTER  III. 

A   RIDE   ACROSS    THE   CONTINENT. 

IN  spite  of  all  that  he  had  heard  and  expected  to 
see  in  San  Francisco,  Jozuna  was  amazed  at  the 
vast  size  and  altitude  of  the  structures  around 
him.  The  many-storied  edifices  and  the  long  line  of 
imposing  dwellings  overpowered  him.  He  almost 
refused  to  believe  that  these  were  the  results  of 
human  industry.  To  him  they  seemed  rather  the 
work  of  the  gods.  He  wanted  to  walk  in  the  middle 
of  the  streets,  in  fear  lest  they  should  fall  down 
upon  him.  The  cornices  seemed  to  frown  at  him. 

As  the  two  young  men  travelled  across  the  coun- 
try, they  resolved,  instead  of  taking  the  "  long  haul," 
going  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other,  like 
an  "  original  package  "  of  freight,  from  consignor  to 
consignee,  to  break  their  journey  and  see  some  of  the 
places  by  the  way. 

"  I  can't  tell  you  about  these  Western  cities,"  said 
his  fellow-traveller  to  Jozuna.  "They  are  not  like 
those  old  ones  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  where  Boston 
goes  for  brains,  New  York  for  money,  Philadelphia 

34 


A  RIDE   ACROSS  THE   CONTINENT.          35 

for  family  stock,  and  Washington  for  political  com- 
pany, though  I  know  that  in  Chicago  they  always 
ask  what  you  can  do.  By  the  way,  I  heard  an  Aus- 
tralian at  the  ticket-office  to-day  asking  to  be  booked 
to  Chick-a-go.  So  prepare,  old  fellow,  to  be  inquired 
of  a  good  deal.  You  are  in  a  land  where  they  ask 
questions,  though  I'll  warrant  you  nobody  will  in- 
quire, as  you  Japanese  always  do,  especially  if  it's  a 
woman,  '  How  old  are  you  ? '  Please  don't  fire  that 
interrogation  at  any  American  lady." 

"Yes,"  said  Jozuna,  "they  have  already  poked 
curious  questions  at  me  in  the  street  cars.  One  man 
said,  '  Hello,  Washee  ! '  I  thought  at  first  he  meant 
to  call  me  an  eagle,  thinking  of  our  Japanese  word 
(washi),  which  sounds  that  way ;  but,  when  he  asked 
whether  I  was  going  out  to  get  the  Monday's  wash, 
I  said,  'I  beg  your  pardon,  sir,  to  what  do  you 
refer  ? '  and  he  said,  '  Oh,  why,  John,  aren't  you  in 
the  laundry  business?'  and  I  told  him  'no.'  Why 
did  he  ask  me  that  question?" 

Then  Clarence  explained  to  his  friend  how  expert 
the  Chinese  had  become  with  soap  and  starch,  water 
and  the  washboard.  Coming  first  to  this  country 
and  washing  clothes  for  the  miners,  they  had  by 
sheer  force  of  conservatism  kept  in  the  same  groove 
of  business,  "especially,"  as  Clarence  said,  "when 
they  thus  run  in  opposition  to  women  more  than  to 
men." 


36  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

"  But  almost  every  one  takes  me  for  a  Chinaman. 
One  man  asked  me  if  I  had  cut  off  my  queue,  which 
we  Japanese  never  wore,  for  we  were  never  con- 
quered by  Manchus  or  any  other  foreigners.  Our 
fathers  used  to  have  top-knots  on  their  noddles ;  but 
Japanese  of  to-day  do  not  wear  them,  unless  it  may 
be  a  good  ways  back  in  the  country." 

The  truth  was  that  the  indiscriminating  American, 
who  was  somewhat  off  in  his  geography  and  weak  in 
his  ethnology,  even  went  so  far  as  to  talk  to  Jozuna 
about  opium-smoking  —  a  habit  unknown  in  Japan. 
One  lady  asked  him  if  his  sisters  had  their  feet 
bound.  In  a  word,  Jozuna,  though  his  stature,  com- 
plexion, and  even  eyes  were  sufficiently  different  from 
a  Chinaman's,  was  usually  taken  for  one. 

"  But  perhaps  I'll  be  able  to  show  them  that  I  am 
not  a  Chinaman,  but  a  loyal  subject  of  our  emperor," 
said  Jozuna,  one  day,  to  Clarence  Burnham. 

At  Rochester  the  two  friends  parted,  for  Jozuna 
wished  to  visit  a  fellow-countryman,  very  artistic  in 
his  tastes,  at  Slatington,  Pennsylvania,  and  to  do  so, 
took  the  Lehigh  Valley  Railroad.  Clarence  Burn- 
ham,  who  had  a  through  ticket,  and  could  not  change 
his  route,  bade  his  young  friend  good-by,  expecting 
to  meet  him  in  New  Brunswick. 

Jozuna  had  no  trouble  with  the  tickets,  but  the 
baggagemen  had  anti-Chinese  prejudices  which  they 
did  not  hesitate  to  show.  They  were  so  slow,  and 


A   RIDE   ACROSS  THE   CONTINENT.          37 

even  insolent,  about  taking  off  the  old  and  putting 
on  the  new  checks,  that  Jozuna  remonstrated  with 
the  baggage-master. 

"  How  is  it  ?  I  have  crossed  your  country  and  at 
all  the  stations  the  railway  men  were  polite  to  me. 
What's  the  reason  that  here  in  Rochester  they  are 
gruff  ? " 

"  Oh !  "  said  the  surly  man  of  leather  straps  and 
bits  of  brass,  "we  have  no  use  for  Chinese." 

"  But  I  am  not  a  Chinese,"  said  Jozuna. 

"  Not  a  Chinese  ?  Come  now,  little  John,  what  are 
you,  then  ?  "  leered  the  baggage-master. 

"  I  am  a  Japanese,"  said  Jozuna,  proudly. 

"  Oh  !  you  are  a  Japanese,  are  you  ?  Why,  give  us 
your  hand.  We  like  your  country's  people,"  and  the 
trunk  man  seized  Jozuna' s  hand  and  gave  it  such  a 
hearty  squeeze  that  the  owner  hoped  such  an  experi- 
ence would  not  soon  happen  again.  It  positively 
hurt  him. 

"  There  you  are,"  and  a  clean  white  card  check,  in 
place  of  the  dirty  brass,  was  placed  in  Jozuna's  hand. 
"We'll  serve  you  better  the  next  time  you  come. 
Good-by,"  and  the  train  pulled  out,  soon  leaving  be- 
hind Rochester's  mid-air  image  of  Mercury  standing 
on  a  chimney,  as  if  like  Santa  Claus  he  was  about  to 
soar  again  for  other  places  of  business. 

More  lonely  than  ever,  Jozuna  rode  through  the 
lovely  lake  region  of  New  York,  which  along  Cayuga 


38  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

reminded  him  of  Lake  Biwa,  but  without  the  white- 
walled  feudal  castles  of  his  native  land. 

From  Slatington,  after  a  brief  visit,  he  rode  to  New 
York.  He  had  not  spoken  a  word  to  Clarence  Burn- 
ham  as  to  why  he  had  left  Japan,  nor  had  his  com- 
rade asked  him.  He  was  now  desirous  of  avoiding 
his  countrymen,  either  at  New  Brunswick  or  in  New 
York,  as  far  as  possible. 

On  Manhattan  Island  Jozuna  found  temporary  em- 
ployment as  draughtsman  in  an  engineer's  office. 
He  occupied  his  spare  time  by  mastering  the  mys- 
teries of  the  great  Suspension  Bridge,  and  of  elec- 
tricity, and  in  working  in  houses  and  the  machine 
shops  so  far  as  he  could  get  entrance  and  be  free 
from  annoyance. 

It  was  at  the  Imperial  Consulate  of  Japan  that  he 
amazed  those  who  knew  him,  by  declaring  his  inten- 
tion of  descending  voluntarily  from  the  social  grade 
of  Shizoku,  or  gentleman,  to  that  of  heimin,  or  com- 
moner. As  such  he  was  so  enrolled. 

He  struck  them  with  equal  surprise  by  requesting 
a  fellow-countryman,  skilful  with  the  tattooing  needle 
and  color,  to  work  upon  his  breast  a  design  drawn  for 
him  by  his  artist  friend  at  Slatington.  Many  weeks 
were  necessary  to  prick  and  stain  in  the  design, 
but  when  finished  it  was  clear  and  startling  in  its 
realism. 

It  was  the  old  picture,  hung  aeons  ago,  in  the  night 


A   RIDE   ACROSS  THE   CONTINENT.          39 

skies  of  Japan,  by  the  Creator,  and  for  ages  His  chil- 
dren there  have  loved  the  divine  original. 

Out  of  the  inky-blue  sky,  and  from  deeps  upon 
deeps  of  shadow,  the  emerging  line  of  plumed  trum- 
peters of  air  moved  into  the  silver  light  of  the  full 
moon,  flashing,  careering,  bathed  in  silver,  trans- 
figured for  a  moment,  only  to  retreat  into  the  caverns 
of  darkness. 

Here  was  a  triumph  of  art  upon  the  human  cuticle. 
It  reminded  one  of  the  old  philosopher  in  Kioto,  who 
envied  the  tattooer  that  could  so  permanently  decorate 
the  bodies  of  men,  while  he,  the  penman,  though 
seeking  mind  and  heart,  had  to  be  content  to  write 
only  on  paper. 

So  months  moved  on  and  years  slipped  by.  As  in 
a  prison,  "a  dead  man  out  of  mind,"  a  distant  bird 
invisible  in  the  inky  night  sky,  Jozuna,  cut  off  from 
his  countrymen,  unknown  save  to  very  few,  passed 
months  in  toil.  Yet  all  the  time  his  eyes  burned 
with  a  fierce  resolve.  He  waited  for  an  opportu- 
nity to  prove  himself  —  a  goose. 

Meanwhile,  let  us  look  at  Clarence  Burnham's  en- 
vironment and  adventures. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  JAPANESE  INVASION  OF  NEW  JERSEY. 

IT  was  a  mysterious  invasion,  that  of  the  Japanese 
of  the  old  college  town  of  New  Brunswick  on 
the  Raritan,  in  1868. 

The  place  was  famous  for  visits.  The  New 
Hampshire  Yankee  and  the  New  Jersey  Dutchman 
had  here  met  and  fused  together  long  ago,  compro- 
mising by  giving  the  town  a  German  name.  The 
Hessians  and  the  Continentals  had  later  come  to 
stay,  or  to  chase  each  other  backward  and  forward. 

Indeed,  even  yet  the  fields,  in  the  Raritan  valley  are 
redolent  of  army  rations  of  a  German  sort.  Are  not 
the  meadows  well  sprinkled  with  the  garlic  that  com- 
pletely falsifies  Longfellow's  attribution  in  "  Evange- 
line  "  of  sweet  breath  to  "  the  kine  of  the  meadows  "  ? 
Nay,  does  not  spring  butter  taste  strongly  of  the 
struggle  for  freedom  ?  Moreover,  is  not  a  local  in- 
sect still  called  the  Hessian  fly  ?  In  the  far  interior 
do  not  mothers  still  terrorize  rebellious  Jerseymen  of 
tender  years,  with  the  threat  of  the  Hessian  alleged 
to  be  coming  again  ? 

40 


THE   JAPANESE   INVASION    OF   NEW   JERSEY.   41 

Yes,  the  old  town  had  had  many  visitors.  Later 
had  swarmed  in  the  ebony  sons  of  freedom,  for  here 
had  been  a  station  on  the  Underground,  as  well  as 
on  the  Camden  and  Amboy,  and  the  railway  later 
named  after  the  state  of  Pennsylvania.  Both  Eman- 
cipation Day  and  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  had 
been  celebrated  by  the  blacks,  many  times  over. 

Tradition  told  even  of  redmen,  and  the  names  of 
their  villages  are  still  reechoed  on  the  maps.  Last 
of  all  came  the  little  brown  fellows  from  over  the 
sea. 

They  arrived  at  first  by  twos  and  threes.  In  old 
Japan,  in  Tycoonal  days,  American  professors  and 
engineers  had  been  reckoned  as  mechanics,  and  there 
were  searchings  of  hearts  in  the  Yedo  palaces  as 
to  whether  these  men  were  pundits,  or  only  "  base 
mechanicals,"  and  it  was  debated  whether  they 
should  be  awarded  audience.  So  also  in  American 
homes,  the  tables  whereon  were  daily  served  stu- 
dents' hash  and  coffee  quivered  with  the  question 
whether  these  new  Asians  were  "  colored  people," 
or  could  sit  down  side  by  side  with  white  folks. 
Christianity  and  common  sense  won  the  day,  and 
the  first  two  brown  boys  were  welcomed. 

Still,  in  a  certain  house  one  nervous  old  lady  who 
had  read  about  hara-kiri  (nearly  always  spelled 
Harry  Karry)  was  "glad  these  strangers  had  a  seat 
at  a  good  distance  from  the  carving-knife,"  lest  being 


42  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

suddenly  offended  they  might  commit  the  "  happy 
despatch  "  there  and  then.  The  Japanese,  she  had 
read,  had  a  habit  of  taking  revenge  on  those  who 
insulted  them  that  was  quite  reflex  and  recurved. 
"  They  usually  killed  themselves  to  spite  others," 
she  was  told. 

But  what  a  covert  missionary  retort  they  did  give, 
even  though  their  English  was  so  scanty,  and  on 
etiquette  they  said  not  a  word.  They  seemed  not 
only  very  polite,  but  they  wore  their  courtesy  like  an 
easy  garment,  to  which  they  had  long  been  used.  It 
was  too  genuine,  too  much  like  native  air,  to  have 
been  "  learned  in  America,"  or  elsewhere  than  home. 

True,  because  /  is  Chinese  and  r  Japanese  they 
asked  for  a  "  ramp"  to  light  themselves  to  bed. 
Again,  one  nearly  scared  the  spinster  landlady  out  of 
her  wits,  ploughing  for  a  moment  in  her  bosom  a  deep 
furrow  of  regret  that  she  had  even  taken  the  boys  in 
at  all,  when  one  lad,  who  wanted  to  pay  her  a  com- 
pliment, asked  her  how  old  she  was.  She  after- 
ward learned  that  one  of  the  first  questions  in  the 
Sunrise  Land,  after  an  introduction,  is  the  friendly 
one,  "  Your  honorable  years,  how  many  ?  " 

Indeed,  it  seemed  almost  like  a  moral  box  on  the 
ears,  or  a  nudge  in  the  back,  or  a  hunch,  such  as  peo- 
ple give  each  other  in  church  when  the  sermon  is 
pat,  that  these  brown  boys  had  a  hard  finish  of  ele- 
gant manners  that  quite  outshone  that  of  the  boys 


THE   JAPANESE    INVASION    OF   NEW   JERSEY.   43 

even  of  Somerset  County,  fairest  of  the  fair  counties 
of  New  Jersey. 

The  mystery  deepened  when,  instead  of  two,  there 
came  ten,  twenty,  thirty  Japanese  lads,  and  still  the 
wonder  grew  that  they  were  all  polite,  polished  gen- 
tlemen. "How  strange,"  thought  Mrs.  Gunders,  who 
kept  a  students'  boarding-house,  and  yet  with  her 
sister  attended  every  meeting  in  the  First  Reformed 
Church.  ".These  young  men  come  from  Japan 
where  we  send  missionaries,  and  yet  how  polite  they 
are  !  I  don't  know  what  to  make  of  it." 

Still  further  the  wonder  grew ;  for  within  two 
years  after  the  first  pair  of  restless,  black,  penetrating 
eyes  had  gazed  upon  the  unwonted  sights  of  dashing 
locomotives  and  long  freight  trains,  of  troops  of  pigs 
rooting  up  suburban  sods,  of  roosters  high  up  on 
church  spires,  and  what  not,  there  were  already  three- 
score and  ten  young  Japanese  in  the  city  on  the 
Raritan  and  the  villages  adjoining.  Evidently  they 
had  not  discovered  the  United  States  in  general,  but 
only  New  Brunswick  in  particular. 

Behind  this  mysterious  movement  there  must  be 
some  powerful  force,  perhaps  some  striking  person- 
ality, pushing  these  young  men  on  and  on,  yes,  seven 
thousand  miles  from  home ;  and  there  was  at  Naga- 
saki a  mighty  man,  but  a  modest  one,  who,  incar- 
nating in  himself  the  best  traditions  of  brave  little 
Holland  and  the  great  American  nation,  was  per- 


44  IN  THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

suading  the  hermits  to  send  their  sons  abroad. 
Taking  his  advice,  many  a  lion  "  cast  his  cub  into  the 
valley,"  which  is  Japanese  thought  for  letting  the  pet 
son  travel  abroad. 

Perhaps  all  these  lads,  some  of  them  with  their 
top-knots  hardly  cut  yet,  came  to  the  capital  of  the 
Reformed  Church  in  America,  because  they  did  not 
know  that  there  were  in  the  great  United  States  other 
schools  and  colleges,  and,  indeed,  how  should  they  in 
1 867  ?  As  soon  as  they  did  learn  the  reality,  they 
and  the  Jersey  towns  were  relieved  of  congestion, 
and  Young  Japan  was  more  healthfully  and  profitably 
distributed.  For  nothing  was  better  for  the  mastery 
of  the  English  language  than  that  they  should  not 
be  together  and  talk  Japanese. 

But  the  scattering  did  not  take  place  before,  in 
Willow  Grove  cemetery,  white  tombs  of  marble 
showed  how,  in  noble  thirst  for  truth  and  knowledge, 
some  of  the  eager  students  had  found  honored  rest- 
ing-places in  alien  soil.  Our  American  climate  re- 
sents familiarities.  The  habit  of  young  Asians  of 
relieving  themselves  of  underclothing,  especially  of 
abhorred  woollen,  during  a  January  thaw,  or  a  balmy 
day  in  March,  did  not  tend  to  lengthen  life.  Even 
an  American  summer  is  not  made  by  one  swallow. 

It  was  Clarence  Burnham's  good  fortune  on  reach- 
ing "  Japanese  town,"  as  some  jealous  and  envious 
Princetonians  —  sixteen  miles  away  —  called  New 


THE  JAPANESE   INVASION   OF   NEW  JERSEY.   45 

Brunswick,  to  find  what  were  advertised  as  "rooms 
and  board  "  at  the  Misses  Hilary's  house.  The  first 
attacks  of  homesickness  were  hardly  over  before 
Clarence  could  write  home  to  his  parents,  speaking 
most  warmly  in  praise  of  his  hostesses,  and  his  "  home 
away  from  home "  as  he  called  it.  Eight  students 
received  their  daily  sustenance  at  the  Misses  Hilary's 
table,  four  of  whom  were  "  roomers,"  two  being  Jap- 
anese, one  from  Satsuma,  and  the  other  from  Echizen. 
Pious,  elderly,  sedate,  the  maiden  ladies  were  some- 
times nearly  shocked  at  the  hilarity  of  the  young 
fellows.  Having  both  been  school-teachers  in  their 
earlier  days,  their  tendency  to  be  precise,  and  to 
correct  the  young  roisterers,  often  issued  in  strained 
situations.  It  took  Clarence  some  time  to  find  out 
the  safe  channel  of  speech,  in  order  to  steer  clear 
both  of  the  rocks  of  impropriety  and  the  mud  banks 
of  dulness,  on  which  the  ship  of  conversation  would 
be  hopelessly  stranded. 

Sometimes  the  zeal  of  certain  old  ladies  in  New 
Brunswick  to  have  the  whole  batch  of  lonely  pagans 
in  the  city  converted  at  once,  passed  beyond  bounds 
of  wisdom.  Many  and  various  were  the  traps  set  for 
these  little  flies  to  walk  into  the  various  parlors  of 
the  sectarian  spiders.  Once,  too,  when  a  Christian 
of  the  real  sort,  a  manly  classmate,  had  come  to  talk 
with  one  of  the  brown  lads,  now  pallid  and  wasted 
with  consumption  from  over-study,  the  reply  which 


46  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

the  Oriental  made  kindled  intensest  admiration,  even 
when  it  wrought  pain. 

"  No/'  said  the  sick  one,  "  life  is  like  a  candle  in 
the  wind.  Mine  is  nearly  blown  out,  and  I  shall  not 
offer  to  your  God  and  Christ  only  the  snuff  of  my 
existence.  I  never  insult  my  friends,  and  if  half  of 
what  I  have  read  or  have  been  told  about  Jesus  is  true, 
then  he  is  my  friend,  and  I  want  my  people  to  know 
him.  If  I  had  my  life  to  live  over  again  and  had 
been  taught,  as  you  have  been,  I  might  believe  and 
act  differently.  Good-by,  classmate." 

These  were  nearly  the  last  words  of  the  boy  for 
whom  a  lonely  widower-father  was  sorrowing  under 
the  shadow  of  Japan's  lordly  mountain  of  Hakusan. 
There,  under  the  shelter  roofs  and  over  the  heavy 
pedestals  of  masonry,  built  by  the  government,  had 
hung  for  centuries  the  edicts  of  the  Emperor's  Su- 
preme Council  commanding  that  "  charity  be  shown 
to  widowers,  widows,  orphans,  the  childless  and  sick," 
and  also  the  ban  laid  upon  the  "corrupt  sect"  of 
Jashiu  (Jesus),  for  these  were  the  days  of  "  the  frogs 
in  the  well  that  know  not  the  great  ocean." 

The  Japanese  first  compelled  and  then  won  popu- 
larity, for  they  made  themselves  winsome  lads  among 
us.  Funny  indeed  are  the  ways  in  which  the  Ameri- 
can shows  his  likes  and  dislikes.  Of  course,  not 
only  the  society  faddists,  but  also  those  having  Jap- 
anese to  board  or  entertain,  desired  to  show  their 


THE   JAPANESE   INVASION   OF   NEW  JERSEY.   47 

spoil.  Exploiting  their  conquest,  they  at  first  intro- 
duced the  little  brown  fellows  as  "princes."  If 
"  daimio  "  had  been  a  little  easier  on  the  tongue,  or 
more  facile  in  the  spelling,  they  would  have  been 
content  with  this  rank  for  their  proteges. 

Quite  occasionally  the  "  princes  "  would  fall  short 
of  revenue,  and  then  it  was  a  pitiable  spectacle  which 
human  nature  exhibited.  Men  and  women  vain  in 
society  and  "  liberal "  in  opinions  would,  as  a  rule, 
give  no  help,  while  those  called  "  bigots  "  made  up  a 
generous  fund  from  their  own  purses.  For  months 
and  years,  they  poured  out  their  money  unstintingly 
to  aid  the  makers  of  new  Japan  to  come  to  get  their 
American  education.  They  did  not  know  at  the  time 
whether  their  bread  cast  upon  the  waters  would  re- 
turn again  or  not,  though  it  all  did.  Such  unexpected 
kindness  had  the  effect  of  thoroughly  opening  the 
eyes  of  the  Japanese  statesmen  to  the  real  feelings  of 
our  people  toward  Japan.  In  this  manner,  far  more 
than  through  bombardment,  did  Americans  thus  con- 
quer the  heart  of  Japan. 

It  was  great  fun  and  constant  delight  in  those 
days  to  watch  the  ways  of  the  future  admiral  in 
the  Japanese  navy,  the  coming  envoy  of  the  Mikado 
at  Washington  or  to  the  European  capitals,  the 
governors  of  provinces,  and  the  embryo  captains 
and  generals  in  the  army  that  in  1894  annihilated 
China's  drilled  troops  and  astonished  the  world  by 


48  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

conquering  in  Asia  an  area  larger  than  the  Japanese 
Empire. 

They  played  football,  rowed  on  the  river,  went 
duck-shooting,  and  climbed  up  hotel  stairs  for  the 
thrilling  sensation  of  descending  on  the  elevator. 
To  see  them  get  themselves  acquainted  with  Ameri- 
can ways  and  peoples,  to  say  nothing  of  local  peculi- 
arities, was  an  edifying  lesson  in  human  nature. 
The  average  Caucasian  lacks  discrimination,  indeed, 
very  much  as  a  Chinaman  does,  and  so  it  came  to 
pass  that  even  the  sons  of  Japan's  prime  minister 
were  asked  on  the  street  car  if  they  were  out  seeking 
laundry  orders.  Indeed,  the  questions  fired  at  them 
about  starch  and  soap  puzzled  them  as  much  in  New 
York  as  those  in  San  Francisco  bothered  Jozuna. 

Young  Nippon  could  not  at  once  interpret  all  the 
phenomena,  nor  appreciate  all  the  sweet  reasonable- 
ness of  the  American's  glorious  civilization.  Fur- 
thermore, the  clay  of  his  own  feudalism  stuck  to 
him.  It  is  a  tradition  at  New  Brunswick  that  even 
on  the  public  street,  as  well  as  in  private,  not  the 
low-born  (for  there  were  then  no  such)  but  the  low- 
rank  lad  would  cringe  before  his  blue-blooded  or  high- 
ranked  superior.  Once,  when  a  son  of  the  Empire 
State  had,  as  a  little  peppery  Japanese  thought,  in- 
sulted him,  the  Asian  gravely  asked  permission  of  his 
American  teacher  to  be  allowed  to  kill  the  offender. 
Surprise  was  great  when  permission  was  denied. 


CHAPTER  V. 

COLLEGE  DAYS  ON  THE  RARITAN. 

WE   must  now  see  what  kind  of   a   student 
Clarence   Burnham  was  making  while   in 
old  Rutgers'  halls.     It  is  needless  to  say 
he  was  very  happy. 

College  life  seemed  to  him  a  new  world.  The 
earnestness  of  the  professors,  who  were  always  ready 
to  help  a  faithful  student,  the  real  kindness  of  his 
precise  and  matter-of-fact,  but  warm-hearted  host- 
esses, the  society  of  student  comrades,  and  of  the 
city  people,  the  glorious  beauty  of  the  river,  valley, 
and  hills,  the  marvellous  color  effects  of  the  red  soil 
and  the  clover,  the  wonderful  shaped  evergreens  and 
deciduous  trees,  and  especially  the  gorgeousness  of 
their  autumnal  coloring  —  so  different  from  anything 
he  had  seen  in  Japan  —  filled  his  days  with  delight. 
His  tasks  were  very  congenial,  for  he  was  by  in- 
heritance and  tastes  a  born  student.  Faithful  alike 
in  preparatory  study  and  in  the  class  room,  he  was 
the  pride  of  his  instructors.  To  some  he  was  as 
olive  oil  on  the  waters  to  calm,  when  others  in  the 
class,  dull  or  lazy,  were  as  petroleum  on  the  flames. 

49 


50  IN    THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

There  was  an  irascible  professor,  whose  breakfasts 
seemed  to  have  a  habit  of  chronic  disagreement  with 
him,  civil  war  going  on  continually  between  brain 
and  stomach,  with  little  hope  of  truce.  The  fellows 
nicknamed  him  "Tenpenny,"  in  reference  to  his  sup- 
posed ability,  when  in  a  rage,  to  bite  off  the  head  of 
a  nail  of  that  weight.  One  day  when  a  chronic 
"  flunk,"  who  had  dishonored  the  plough  by  leaving 
it,  not  like  Cincinnatus,  or  Putnam,  for  duty's  sake, 
but  for  the  law,  in  hopes  of  fat  fees  and  social  honors, 
had  tortured  Tacitus  into  pitiable  English,  old  Ten- 
penny  threw  down  his  book  and  stormed  out :  — 

"  Mr.  Jacks,  go  back  to  the  plough  whence  you 
came.  You'll  never  make  the  Raritan  flow  back, 
nor  earn  your  salt  at  law.  Mr.  Burnham,  read." 

Thereupon,  as  Clarence  rendered  the  passage,  old 
Tenpenny's  wrinkles  smoothed  out  visibly.  He 
seemed  another  man,  his  face  oozing  out  joy  until 
Jacks,  with  dogged  perseverance,  or.  lawyer-like  per- 
tinacity, asked  a  question. 

Still  unreconciled  to  have  the  plough  deserted  by 
any  one  but  a  Putnam  bound  for  Bunker  Hill,  old 
Tenpenny's  wrath  was  again  excited  by  Mr.  Jacks's 
query. 

"  Mr.  Jacks,  it  is  said  that  one  fool  can  ask  more 
questions  than  ten  wise  men  can  answer." 

"  Oh  !  "  mumbled  Jacks  inaudibly,  "  that's  why  we 
poor  fellows  flunk  so  often." 


COLLEGE    DAYS   ON   THE   RARITAN.          51 

Fortunately,  old  Tenpenny  did  not  hear  the  re- 
mark, but  it  was  the  talk  of  the  fellows  for  days. 

It  was  not  only  in  the  classics  that  Clarence  Burn- 
ham  excelled,  but  in  our  glorious  English  mother- 
tongue  he  forged  ahead,  excelling  in  composition, 
platform  speaking,  and  debate.  In  the  library  of 
the  Literary  Society,  Philoclean  by  name,  he  revelled 
in  the  treasures  of  books,  old  and  new. 

"  It  would  be  a  calamity  to  make  a  business  man 
of  you,  as  your  father  expects,  according  to  what 
you  tell  me.  I  hear  excellent  things  of  you  from  the 
professor  of  rhetoric,"  said  Prex  to  Clarence  Burn- 
ham  one  day,  as  they  walked  up  the  blue  shale  path 
on  the  campus. 

Prophetic  words  ! 

How  things  "  on  the  banks  of  the  old  Raritan " 
looked  to  Clarence  Burnham  may  be  seen  in  some  of 
his  letters  home,  especially  in  those  when,  as  he  once 
penned  the  phrase,  he  "mounted  on  stilts."  His 
professor  of  rhetoric  rather  encouraged  him  to  do 
this  occasionally.  He  wrote  :  — 

"What  traveller  on  the  Atlantic  coast  does  not 
know  New  Brunswick  ?  In  prehistoric  days,  after 
Cromwell  had  cut  off  the  head  of  one  King  Charles 
and  then  had  his  own  corpse  uncoffined  and  stuck  on 
a  spike  by  another  King  Charles,  the  site  of  our  col- 
lege town  was  called  somebody's  swamp.  When  the 
first  of  the  young  Georges  came  on  the  throne  —  the 


52  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

British,  varying  their  varied  line  of  French,  Dutch, 
Spanish,  and  other  kings  by  a  German  variety  —  the 
settlement  in  the  swamp  shared  the  fate  of  many 
towns  and  streets  in  America.  It  took  on,  in  actual 
fact,  a  German  but  not  a  Hanoverian  name. 

"  At  the  head  of  navigation  of  the  river  and  at  the 
end  of  a  canal  coming  out  of  the  coal  regions  of  Penn- 
sylvania, it  is  a  mighty  place  of  boats  and  steam- 
ers. You  can  see  it,  as  the  lightning  train  flies  up 
from  Philadelphia,  or  down  from  New  York.  The 
grassy  slopes  of  the  campus  reach  almost  to  the  steel 
rails,  kept  polished  by  endless  swift  wheels.  Flank- 
ing the  path  up  to  the  quaint  and  venerable  main 
college  building,  called  after  some  queen,  are  two 
hollow  rings  or  cylinders  of  upright  iron  railings,  set 
as  a  gateway.  These  remind  me  of  a  certain  musi- 
cal instrument,  used  by  the  Mikado's  musicians,  made 
of  a  bundle  of  upright  bamboos.  Simply  because 
of  a  president's  whim,  they  have  weakly  replaced 
with  ugliness  ancient  strength  and  beauty,  in  the 
form  of  oldtime  masonry  with  ball  top. 

"  Everywhere  the  red  shale  soil  is  in  bright  evidence. 
Indeed,  it  so  clings,  with  the  tenacity  of  an  old 
friend,  to  the  shoe  uppers  or  soles,  that  denizens 
of  the  New  Red  Sandstone  belt  in  New  Jersey  are 
betrayed  even  in  the  metropolis.  As  the  train  shoots 
over  the  river,  one  sees  the  dull,  copper-colored  cliffs, 
on  which  the  windflower  blows  and  the  saxifrage 


COLLEGE   DAYS   ON   THE   RARITAN.         53 

waves.  These  cliffs  skirt  the  canal  and  tell  a  geo- 
logical story. 

"  Over  on  the  hills  to  the  left  and  northwest  rises  an 
august  edifice.  It  is  the  theological  mill,  out  of  which 
are  ground  both  the  grist  and  the  millers  for  the 
little  church,  historic,  venerable,  and  noble,  that  kin- 
dles its  beacon  lights  of  hope  and  salvation  chiefly 
along  the  river  valleys  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey. 
Heavenly  seems  the  beauty  of  the  springtime  and 
autumn  to  my  student  eyes,  so  long  used  to  a  differ- 
ent sort  of  beauty  and  landscape  in  Japan. 

"  I  have  read  Ruskin  much,  and  hope  some  day  to 
see  the  Swiss  wonders  of  the  sky,  the  Italian  sunsets, 
and  the  empyrean  that  vaults  the  Mediterranean. 
Yet  I  cannot  imagine  any  more  glorious  caverns  of 
light  and  color  than  those  which,  from  the  banks  of 
the  Raritan,  I  witness  at  least  fifty  times  a  year." 

It  was  a  hoary  tradition  on  the  campus  by  the 
Raritan  that  no  freshman  should  carry  a  cane  or 
wear  a  high  hat.  It  was  expected  also,  unless  it 
were  his  sisters  or  kinswomen,  no  freshman  should 
keep  public  company  with  the  ladies.  Indeed,  it  was 
the  unanimous  decision  of  the  college  corporation, 
in  its  august  whole,  and  in  all  its  parts,  —  patrons, 
trustees,  faculty,  alumni,  and  undergraduates,  —  that 
no  freshman  must  fall  in  love^  or  even  think  of  such 
a  thing.  Such  indiscretion  was,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
seniors,  little  more  than  a  crime. 


54  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

Something  of  the  same  sentiment  and  unwritten 
law  prevailed  at  the  Young  Ladies'  Schools  in  the 
city.  It  might  be  true  that  "  New  Brunswick  is  the 
mother  of  the  Reformed  Church,"  and  that  these 
girls'  schools,  as  the  little  sister  of  a  senior,  seeing 
one  of  them,  in  a  picture,  so  near  the  Theological 
Seminary  nafvely  suggested,  "  Here  is  where  the 
young  ladies  go  to  be  ministers'  wives  "  ;  but  no  such 
purpose  was  confessed.  At  one  of  the  girls'  schools 
it  was  a  rule  that  no  inmate  should  go  riding  with  a 
gentleman  unless  he  were  her  father,  brother,  or  affi- 
anced. When  a  certain  damsel  in  pupilage  applied 
for  the  privilege  of  accepting  an  invitation  to  ride 
out,  the  following  was  the  version  of  a  shorter 
catechism :  — 

"  Is  he  your  father  ?  " 

"No." 

"  Is  he  your  brother  ?  " 

"No." 

"  Then,  since  you  have  asked,  knowing  the  rules, 
you  must  be  engaged." 

"  No,  I  am  not  yet,  but  I  expect  to  be  before  I  get 
back." 

She  was  allowed  to  ride.  Clarence  Burnham, 
freshman,  had,  of  like  expectations,  none.  Yet  one 
day  there  was  a  brilliant  wedding  in  the  Second 
Reformed  Church,  and  the  result  proved  that  "  noth- 
ing is  so  certain  as  the  unexpected." 


COLLEGE   DAYS   ON   THE   RARITAN.          55 

The  daughter  of  one  of  his  mother's  old  friends 
was  to  be  married,  so  Clarence  was  invited.  As  the 
bridal  train  of  six  white-robed  virgins  gathered  in  the 
vestibule  of  the  church,  where  they  prepared  to  move 
up  the  middle  aisle  with  fashionable  and  funereal 
slowness,  there  and  then  and  for  the  first  time  Clar- 
ence Burnham  felt  a  peculiar  inward  thrill  as  he 
looked  upon  fair  Marian  Hopewell.  Her  compara- 
tively simple  costume  only  heightened  her  color  and 
loveliness.  She  wore  "  a  dress  of  some  snowy  tissue, 
gathered  into  puffs,  on  which  lay  bright  green  leaves  " 
—  his  description  of  a  lady's  dress  usually,  for  some 
reason  he  never  could  explain,  caused  smiles  among 
his  women  friends;  but  to  his  eyes  the  maiden's  whole 
appearance  seemed  as  natural  as  a  white  rose  with 
its  accompanying  foliage.  Under  a  wealth  of  golden 
hair  shone  a  pair  of  blue  eyes  that  so  seemed  to 
rain  influence  on  him  that  he  wondered  if  they 
ever  thus  affected  any  other  mortal.  Fairest  of  the 
fair  seemed  her  face.  He  thought  he  had  never 
seen  aught  on  earth  so  lovely.  It  was  for  him 
the  discovery  of  another  new  world,  for  Clarence 
Burnham  had  never  known  before  that  the  universe 
contained  anything  so  entrancingly  lovely  as  Marian 
Hopewell. 

"Now,"  said  he  to  himself,  yet  almost  out  loud,  "I 
can  understand  what  the  poet  of  Japan  meant,  though 
I  thought  it  was  only  fancy  — 


56  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

"  One  glance  at  her  eye, 
And  you  lose  your  city, 
Another,  and  you  would 
Forfeit  a  kingdom. 

"  Yes,  those  eyes  !  They  pierced  me.  No  wonder 
the  same  country's  poet  spoke  of  soldiers  winning 
their  blood  victories  with  sword  and  dagger,  while 
women  pierce  with  an  eye  glance  and  shed  no  blood." 

Slight  interest  had  Burnham  in  the  nuptial  cere- 
mony itself,  save  as  a  type  and  premonition;  but 
again,  as  the  bridal  procession  moved  down  the  aisle, 
that  vision  dazzled  his  eyes  and  fired  his  soul. 

Alas  for  his  hopes !  He  met  Marian  Hopewell 
only  for  a  moment  at  the  reception,  and  again  it 
seemed  as  if  his  breast  had  become  too  small  to 
hold  his  heart,  as  with  a  smile  she  told  him  that  she 
must  leave  town  for  her  home  far  up  on  the  Hudson 
River  that  afternoon,  but  —  oh  joy!  she  would  be 
back  again  for  several  days  at  Commencement.  Her 
younger  brother  Victor  was  then  to  enter  Rutgers  as 
freshman,  and  she  would  come  for  a  visit  of  several 
days. 

Here  begins  a  story  that  cannot  be  told,  save  only 
in  issues  and  results.  Clarence  waited  through  weeks 
that  seemed  leaden-footed,  until  first  the  wind-flower 
and  anemone  and  then  the  June  roses  bloomed,  and 
at  last  the  day  of  glory,  music,  flowers,  beauty,  and 
thrilling  sensations  was  in  view,  when  she  was  to  come. 


COLLEGE   DAYS   ON   THE   RARITAN.         57 

It  was  a  day  of  tremendous  fuss  and  bustle  all 
through  the  town,  and  even  in  the  surrounding 
country,  when  the  initial  hours  of  commencement 
day  had  fully  come.  Every  pretty  girl,  so  fortunate 
as  to  have  a  student  friend  in  Queen's  College,  was 
to  wear  her  very  best  gown,  and  to  balance  repose- 
fully  on  her  head  the  most  absolutely  unique  creation 
of  the  milliner.  A  brass  band  from  the  metropolis  on 
Manhattan  Island  had  been  engaged,  months  before, 
to  come  over,  and  of  course  to  sound  its  very  sweet- 
est strains.  There  was  to  be  music  galore  at  the 
exhibition  the  night  before,  at  the  Commencement 
exercises  in  the  great  white  church  in  the  morning, 
and  at  the  college  ball  in  the  evening.  Besides  this 
triple  task  of  the  men  of  wind,  strings,  and  percussion, 
each  musician  must  serve  as  fragment  or  attachment 
to  various  interludes,  class  dinners,  serenades,  etc.,  so 
that  when  the  total  episode  was  over,  each  man  of 
brass,  catgut,  or  drumsticks  looked  very  much  like  a 
derelict  drifting  on  the  ocean  of  exhaustion. 

At  the  Commencement  exercises,  the  band  was  ex- 
pected to  play  all  the  popular  music  that  was  not 
only  "new"  but  "up-to-date,"  besides  giving  a  funny 
sort  of  a  hodge-podge  of  college  airs  with  occasional 
toots  and  whistles  in  between.  For  the  sandwiching 
of  favorite  pieces  in  between  the  speeches,  every  stu- 
dent had  his  choice  and  nominated  his  favorite  com- 
poser. In  those  days  pretty  much  every  one  in  the 


58  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

class  that  wanted   to,  could   speak,  and   there   was 
music  with  every  speech. 

On  that  day  of  the  seniors'  culmination,  the  holy 
songs  of  the  Sabbath  and  the  solid  old  tunes  of  Dun- 
dee and  St.  Stephens  and  Dennis,  gave  way  in  the 
white  meeting-house  to  the  flimsy  strains  of  Strauss, 
Offenbach,  and  Sousa.  It  was  the  custom,  too,  fo; 
all  the  friends  of  the  young  orators  to  furnish  bou 
quets,  wreaths,  floral  monograms,  and  society  badge,' 
in  flowers,  sometimes  with  gold-stamped  ribbons,  an<* 
in  every  case  a  card  attached,  so  that  every  "  culmi 
nator,"  as  the  orator  and  graduate  was  called,  did  seerri 
literally  to  reach  the  pinnacle  of  glory,  when  his  head 
barely  appeared  over  the  mountain  of  offerings.  Then 
as  a  veritable  walking  flower  garden,  he  moved  off  and 
away  with  heaps  of  perfume  and  color  in  his  arms, 
and,  to  confess  it,  sometimes  clear  over  his  head. 
Indeed,  it  looked  Shakespearian,  as  if  the  very  woods 
of  Birnam  were  moving  to  Macbeth  and  Dunsinane. 

For  months  previous,  the  teapot  tempest  of  college 
politics  had  been  brewing.  About  the  first  day  in 
the  month  of  roses,  its  spout  fairly  puffed  like  an 
engine,  for  then  the  "  marshal  president "  was  elected. 
This  was  an  honor  for  which  all  students  strove.  When 
won,  it  seemed  almost  visibly  to  add  to  the  stature  of 
the  possessor  of  that  pretty  little  wand,  a  foot  long, 
and  tipped  with  a  gilded  acorn,  which  descended  from 
time  immemorial  to  the  winner  of  the  prize  of  office. 


COLLEGE   DAYS  ON   THE   RARITAN.         59 

It  was  plaited  over  with  the  colors  of  the  literary 
society  and  the  Greek  letter  fraternity  to  which  the 
proud  owner  belonged. 

With  its  ribbons  fluttering  in  the  wind,  the  marshal 
president  arranged  his  forces  for  the  procession  from 
college  door  to  church,  into  which  were  to  pass  the 
Prex,  the  trustees,  the  dignified  visitors,  and  eminent 
platform  ornaments.  After  these,  first  in  the  serried 
lines  of  student  fry,  the  gowned  seniors,  looking  in 
their  black  robes  like  white-throated  crows,  were 
ranged.  Next  came  the  juniors  and  sophomores, 
and,  last  of  all,  the  freshmen,  or,  rather  we  should 
say,  the  freshmen  came  first  right  after  the  brass 
band,  but  not  to  remain  at  the  head  of  the  line.  The 
tactics  in  vogue,  which  at  first  delightedly  surprised 
and  later  deeply  humiliated  Mr.  Greenie  Fresh,  who 
supposed  he  was  to  go  in  first,  were  on  this  wise. 

First  of  all  in  the  campus  parade,  after  the  brass 
band,  duly  arrayed  in  lines  by  the  marshal-president, 
came  the  prospective  freshmen  and  the  wandering 
"  peris  outside  of  paradise,"  who,  in  the  local  slang, 
were  called  "rats,"  but  who,  as  grammar  school 
seniors,  hoped  in  the  autumn  to  enter  the  college 
halls.  Some  of  these  youthful  sons  of  hope  and  en- 
thusiasm, despite  apparent  shyness,  not  knowing  local 
history  and  precedents,  were  highly  elated  at  heading 
the  procession,  wondering  why  such  honor  had  been 
thrust  upon  them.  After  these  temporarily  first,  who 


60  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

were  to  become  last,  followed  in  double  lines  the  fresh- 
men, sophomores,  juniors,  the  sacred  and  gowned 
seniors,  and  after  them  the  adult  dignitaries.  When 
all  was  ready,  the  marshal-president  gave  the  signal 
to  the  brass  band  leader. 

Thereupon  broke  out  a  tempest  of  delightful  noise 
from  every  instrument  of  wind  and  percussion,  and 
the  column  swung  forward  to  the  movement  of  the 
music.  Down  through  the  gateway  and  past  houses 
lined  at  the  windows  with  admiring  or  critical  specta- 
tors, the  procession  wended  its  way  into  the  street, 
and  then,  within  the  churchyard  gate,  through  the 
summer  snowstorm  of  white  tombstones  and  the 
billowy  sea  of  grassy  mounds  to  the  church  door. 

There  it  halted  and  then  the  grammar  school 
"rats"  and  the  inexperienced  freshmen  found  that 
the  last  was  first  and  the  first  was  last.  At  one 
wave  of  the  marshal-president's  wand,  down  sank 
freshman  pride  and  hope,  like  the  band  of  Roderick 
Dhu.  The  column  opened  and  widened,  and  up  and 
through  the  perspective  of  the  two  long  lines  of  young 
men  facing  each  other,  the  dignitaries  and  seniors 
moved.  These  entering  the  church  took  their  places 
on  the  platform,  the  undergraduates  and  upper  class 
men  finding  places  in  the  reserved  part  of  the  house 
or  bestrewing  themselves  among  the  groups,  where 
pretty  girls  and  boon  companions  or  admiring  rela- 
tives were  gathered.  The  freshmen  were  lost  in 


COLLEGE   DAYS   ON   THERTAN.         61 


the  crowd.  The  "rats,"  for  the  most  part,  herded 
in  the  uncertain  rear  between  pews  and  wall,  or  in 
the  vestibule. 

Fascinating  and  bewildering  was  the  scene  within. 
If  Clarence  Burnham  had  ever  nourished  the  horrible 
suspicion  that  college  life  consisted  chiefly  of  toiling 
during  half  of  every  twenty-four  hours  over  text- 
books and  dictionaries,  and  at  least  one-quarter  of 
them  in  semi-imprisonment  in  class  rooms,  with 
dried-up  professors  or  badgering  tutors,  he  was  here 
relieved  and  most  heartily  Tightened. 

He  could  see  to-day  but  one  great  ocean  of  bright 
eyes,  rosy  faces,  gorgeous  millinery,  and  attractive 
gowns.  The  music  was  exhilarating.  The  fans,  the 
flowers,  the  chat,  and  the  radiant  smiles  between  the 
speeches,  when  the  band  played,  made  him  as  happy 
as  one  of  those  "  boys  around  the  monkey  cage  "  at 
the  circus,  of  which  he  had  had  experience,  and  of 
whom  he  had  so  often  sung.  He  was  made  all 
the  happier  by  seeing,  without  jealousy  or  envy, 
the  orators  not  only  holding  the  attention  of  their 
hearers,  but  reaching  the  acme  of  glory  when  they 
walked  off  balancing  their  piles  of  bouquets,  wreaths, 
baskets,  of  all  things  lovely  in  floral  possibilities. 

It  seemed  to  him  very  much  like  heaven  to  enter 
into  that  senior's  rapture  of  fair  maidens  and  flowers, 
smiles,  compliments,  and  congratulations.  It  felt 
very  much  like  the  seventh  heaven  of  delight  when 


62  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

he  met  and  talked  with  Marian  Hopewell.  He  even 
thought  that  when  he  met  her  and  she  put  out  her 
hand  to  welcome  him,  with  a  smile  that  he  never 
forgot,  that  she  had  been  waiting  for  him,  and  would 
even  have  missed  him  had  he  not  come.  In  her 
presence,  and  in  the  happy  group  of  maidens  and 
swains,  he  was  like  a  bubbling  fountain  of  joy. 

Like  a  hundred  other  groups,  this,  in  which  Clar- 
ence was,  would  not  stop  either  chat  or  giggle,  in 
spite  of  old  Prex's  remonstrances.  Both  Clarence 
and  Marian  often  talked,  I  am  sorry  to  record,  even 
while  the  orations  of  some  one  of  the  dozen  or  so  of 
orators  mellifluously  flowed  on.  Prex,  after  working 
his  face  first  into  a  redness  and  then  a  purple  that 
suggested  apoplexy,  finally  gave  up  the  task  of  lictor 
and  thrashed  the  fair  anarchists  no  more.  Then,  as 
by  common  consent,  the  hum  of  conversation  ceased, 
the  later  orators  had  quiet,  and  the  freshet  of  fun 
and  chat  broke  loose  only  during  the  intermissions 
of  brass  band  music. 

Only  once  during  the  exercises  was  there  anything 
startling.  Only  once  was  the  audience  put  in  terrible 
and  sympathetic  fear,  lest  the  possibilities  of  a  stom- 
ach should  be  forever  ruined.  This  was  not  when 
one  of  the  "  culminators,"  famous  as  a  champion  in 
the  boat  races,  was  presented  with  a  magnificent 
spoon  oar,  twelve  feet  long  and  gorgeously  wreathed 
with  flowers  that  shed  perfume,  as  the  trophy  was 


COLLEGE    DAYS   ON   THE    RARITAN.         63 

carried  up  the  aisle  to  be  put  in  the  victor's  hands. 
No,  envy  was  then  the  only  emotion ;  but,  in  the 
second  instance,  the  hair  on  many  scalps  almost  rose 
erect  with  fear. 

A  "  culminator,"  having  ceased  his  speech,  appar- 
ently disdaining  flowers,  waited  in  expectation  of 
something  to  emerge  out  of  the  air  —  "a  bolt  from 
the  blue,"  as  it  were.  It  came.  It  was  a  white  ball, 
thrown  right  out  of  the  audience  by  one  of  the  base- 
ball team.  For  a  moment  it  seemed  as  if  the  impos- 
ing stomach  of  the  president  was  to  be  either  wholly 
perforated  or  pummelled  into  miseries,  many  and 
fatal,  by  what  seemed  to  be  a  big  grape-shot  whiz- 
zing through  the  air,  apparently  as  swiftly  as  if  shot 
from  a  cannon.  Vain  fear !  It  was  caught  on  the 
fly,  and  in  one  hand  only,  by  the  orator,  who  alertly 
saved  Prex's  diaphragm,  and  brought  down  the  house 
in  thunders  of  applause. 

Afternoon  came.  Clarence  Burnham  could  not  go 
to  the  alumni  dinner,  for  he  was  only,  even  now,  a 
sophomore.  His  sensations  of  awe  had  been  miti- 
gated moderately,  for  he  had  actually  seen  one  Com- 
mencement. Yet  he  was  hardly  prepared  for  the 
shock  which  came  to  him  on  meeting  one  of  the  theo- 
logical professors.  Going  to  call  upon  his  father's 
old  friend,  and  to  bear  greetings,  they  chatted  awhile 
about  things  local.  Clarence  innocently  asked  the 
old  gentleman  whether  he  had  attended  the  Com- 


64  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

mencement.  To  his  surprise  the  learned  man  re- 
plied ;  "  No,  I  never  go  to  Commencements.  They 
are  always  a  great  bore  to  me." 

At  this  the  young  man  looked  up  in  wonder  and 
surprise  that  fairly  bordered  on  horror.  The  words 
seemed  incredible.  Commencement  a  bore  ?  Com- 
mencement with  its  roses,  flowers,  music,  and  lovely 
maidens,  and  all  the  brightness  and  joy  of  the  glad 
occasion,  a  bore  ?  The  very  words  savored  of  both 
sacrilege  and  insanity.  How  could  a  man  say  such 
things  ?  Innocently,  Clarence  looked  up  at  the  ven- 
erable gentleman,  wondering  if  he  were  ready  for  the 
lunatic  asylum. 

However,  he  was  happy  enough.  Marian  Hope- 
well's  brother,  an  incoming  freshman,  had  actually 
invited  him  to  come  up  to  their  home  at  Eagle's 
Nest.  Burnham  accepted  with  a  promptness  that 
seemed  to  give  Victor  something  like  an  electric 
shock.  Eagle's  Nest,  named  from  an  Indian  tradi- 
tion, rather  than  from  any  manifest  geographical  sig- 
nificance, lay  on  the  slope  of  hills  overlooking  the 
Hudson  River. 

Marian's  father  was  a  domine,  or  minister  in  the 
Reformed  Church,  and  would  have  been  horrified  to 
have  any  one  write  him  down  as  a  "  dominie,"  as  our 
ignorant  dictionary  makers  do.  He  lived  in  the  par- 
sonage with  the  apple  of  his  eye,  his  only  daughter 
Marian,  and  the  crown  of  his  hopes,  his  only  son 


COLLEGE   DAYS  ON   THE   RARITAN.         65 

Victor  Hopewell.  To  this  lovely  home,  full  of  light 
and  delight,  Clarence  Burnham  was  invited  to  stay  a 
week,  the  lad  Victor  promising  him  good  times  and 
plenty  of  fun.  The  elect  guest  had  almost  to  hold 
his  pulse  when  he  declared  he  would  be  most  happy 
to  accept.  To  him  were  promised  seven  of  "  the  days 
of  Heaven  upon  earth." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

LOVE   AND    WAR   CLOUDS. 

TO  Clarence  Burnham,  the  prospect  of  a  visit 
to  what  was  to  him  enchanted  land  made  an 
alluring   vista.     Had   he   not   read   Irving's 
legends   of   Tarrytown  and   the   Catskills,  of   Brom 
Bones  and  Rip  Van  Winkle  ?     He  was  now  about  to 
see  the  mystic  region  in  which  these  things  that  did 
not  happen  were  more  real  to  most  readers  than  those 
which  had  "gone  through   the  formality   of  taking 
place." 

When  a  boy,  a  Parisian  gentleman  in  Kobe,  of 
whom  he  learned  the  language  of  sunny  France,  had 
told  him  of  the  enjoyment  derived  from  reading 
Irving's  stories  of  the  Hudson  River  region.  An- 
other of  his  father's  friends,  a  Londoner,  narrated  a 
striking  personal  experience  in  Rip  Van  Winkle 
country.  He  had  been,  in  his  earlier  life,  a  painter 
of  stage  scenery.  Copying  faithfully  from  American 
pictures,  he  put  on  the  theatre  canvas,  as  a  back- 
ground for  the  play,  the  Catskill  Mountains,  the  low 
foreground,  and  the  Hudson  River.  Twenty  years 

66 


LOVE  AND  WAR  CLOUDS.  67 

had  passed  by,  and  he  had  forgotten  all  about  his 
former  work  with  the  brush  and  the  pigments. 
Visiting  America  to  see  his  son  in  Albany,  he  took 
the  night  boat  in  New  York.  Waking  in  the  morn- 
ing, when  the  steamer  was  near  Catskill,  he  went  out 
on  the  deck.  How  strange !  There  was  a  landscape 
which  he  had  seen  before.  Yes,  there  ran  the  river, 
rose  the  mountains,  and  rolled  the  meadows.  How 
puzzling  !  He  had  never  been  in  America  before. 
Was  it  a  dream  ? 

Now,  had  he  been  a  Buddhist,  he  could  easily  have 
explained  his  feelings.  In  some  other  incarnation  he 
had  been  existent  in  this  part  of  the  world.  One  of 
the  comparative  folk-lorists  might  have  told  he  was 
as  Irving's  Rip  Van  Winkle,  whom  the  Tarrytown 
author  had  first  imported  from  Germany,  and  then 
made  to  sleep  and  wake  in  the  Catskills,  and  play 
tennis  with  Henry  (or  in  Irvingese,  "Hendrick") 
Hudson's  sailors  in  the  mountains. 

Nothing  so  psychical  was  necessary,  however,  and 
memory  alone  furnished  the  clew  to  the  riddle.  The 
incidents  of  his  past  life  trooped  back,  and  among 
his  recollections  was  one  of  his  painting  in  London 
the  stage  scenery,  now  so  grandly  enlarged  in  the 
original  itself. 

In  New  York,  Clarence  Burnham  hunted  up  his 
old  friend  Jozuna,  and  told  him  where  he  was  going, 
even  to  Rip  Van  Winkle's  country.  The  subject 


68  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

was  suggestive.  Soon  they  had  entered  into  the 
region  of  Japanese  folk-lore,  which  both  knew  so 
well. 

"  In  my  country,"  said  Jozuna,  "  we  have  two  dif- 
ferent Rip  Van  Winkle  stories :  one  of  land,  and  one 
of  water,  one  up  in  the  forest  and  mountain,  and  one 
down  in  the  deep  sea,  one  wet,  one  dry." 

"Yes,  very  appropriately,"  said  Clarence,  "the  dry 
one  is  Chinese,  for  what  Chinaman  likes  the  sea  ? 
Your  true  Japanese  loves  the  water,  and  so  Urashima, 
the  hero,  goes  down  into  the  palace  on  the  deep 
ocean's  floor." 

"  Yes,  and  while  there  forgets  all  about  the  lapse 
of  time,  for  he  is  in  love,  you  know.  I  wonder  if 
that  is  your  case  ? " 

Clarence  blushed,  but  just  at  that  moment  Jozuna 
was  called  away. 

While  the  American  boy  is  composing  his  thoughts 
for  an  answer,  should  Jozuna  return  to  his  question, 
we  may  explain  that  in  the  Chinese  story  a  wood- 
cutter goes  up  into  the  mountain  and  there  sees  two 
genii  playing,  not  ninepins,  but  chess.  While  the 
woodcutter  looks  on,  they  put  in  his  mouth  something 
pleasant,  shaped  like  a  date  stone.  This  is  to  warn 
him  not  to  give  any  advice  as  to  how  the  game  should 
be  played.  Leaning  on  his  arm  he  continues  watch- 
ing the  moves,  until  suddenly  a  fox  runs  across  the 
space  in  the  woods,  when  the  woodsman  starts  to 


LOVE   AND   WAR   CLOUDS.  69 

pursue  it.  The  stone  falls  out  of  his  mouth.  Then 
the  man  comes  to  his  senses.  He  finds  his  knees 
stiff.  A  white  beard,  that  has  grown  two  feet  long, 
sweeps  his  breast.  His  axe  is  a  mass  of  rust,  and  the 
handle  worm-eaten  almost  to  dust.  Hobbling  down 
to  his  village  no  one  knows  him,  and  he  soon  dies. 

In  the  marine  story,  a  fisher's  boy,  who  is  kind  to 
turtles,  rides  on  the  back  of  one  of  them  down  to  the 
Sea  Queen's  palace,  on  the  ocean's  floor,  built  of  gold, 
silver,  and  gems.  With  love  and  feasting,  he  enjoys 
what  he  supposes  is  half  a  week.  Asking  to  return 
to  earth  to  visit  his  parents,  he  finds  that  in  his  native 
village  no  one  knows  him.  Feeling  lonely,  he  opens 
a  box  given  him  by  the  Sea  Queen,  who  had  charged 
him  on  no  account  to  look  into  it.  As  he  lifts  the  lid, 
a  purple  cloud  issues.  He  falls  down  an  aged  man 
and  is  soon  dead.  He  has  been  away  three  hundred 
years. 

When  Jozuna  returned,  begging  pardon  for  his  few 
moments'  absence,  Clarence  Burnham  noticed  that  he 
was  pale  and  excited. 

"  What's  up,  chum  ?     Have  you  heard  bad  news  ? " 

"  Bad  ?  No,  sir.  I  count  it  the  best  of  news. 
There's  going  to  be  war  between  my  country  and 
China,  within  a  year,  as  sure  as  I  live.  I'm  glad  of 
it,  for  I'm  going  to  be  in  it !" 

"  What  makes  you  so  warlike  all  of  a  sudden  ? " 
asked  Clarence. 


70  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

"  Well,  my  country  has  suffered  enough  of  insult 
and  humiliation  from  China  in  the  past,  and  since  we 
have  adopted  so  much  of  Western  civilization,  the 
Chinese  have  shown  only  contempt  for  us.  They 
still  call  us  wo-jin  —  dwarfs,  you  know.  If  war 
comes,  I  hope  Japan  will  show  to  the  world  her  true 
spirit  and  power." 

k<Yes,  I  hope  so,  too.  It  is  not  creditable  to  the 
nations  of  Europe  that  they  do  not  know  either  the 
spirit  of  the  Japanese,  or  what  is  going  on  in  Japan, 
or  the  difference  between  the  Chinese  and  your 
people." 

"  Difference !  Why,  even  the  average  American 
doesn't  suspect  any  difference.  He  thinks  we  smoke 
opium,  bandage  the  feet  of  our  women,  eat  rats,  and 
wear  pigtails.  But  this  I  worry  over  less  than  that 
they  still  think  us  barbarians.  The  American  news- 
papers even  now  predict  an  explosion  of  savagery. 
What  I  want  the  world  to  see  is  that  Japan  has  a  life, 
a  literature,  and  a  civilization  of  her  own,  so  that  after 
this  war,  that  is  surely  coming,  the  world  will  know 
Japan  and  the  Japanese  as  they  never  knew  our  coun- 
try and  people  before." 

"  But  you  make  me  ashamed  of  my  country,  and 
Christendom  in  general,  when  you  intimate  that  it 
will  take  a  war  to  show  them  how  civilized  Japan  is." 

"  Yes,  Americans  think  Japan  a  place  in  which  to 
get  green  tea  and  curiosities.  They  look  at  us  almost 


LOVE   AND   WAR   CLOUDS.  71 

entirely  from  across  the  trade  counter.  Yet  how 
many  know,  I  wonder,  of  our  schools  and  hospitals, 
of  our  army  and  navy,  of  our  ambulance  corps,  or 
that  our  government  is  a  signatory  to  the  Geneva  and 
Paris  conventions  for  robbing  war  of  its  barbarities 
and  horrors  ? " 

A  knock  at  the  door  at  this  moment  gave  oppor- 
tunity to  Jozuna  to  introduce  his  friend,  Mr.  Niver, 
a  middle-aged  gentleman,  who  had  been  in  Japan 
some  years  before,  and  had  also  visited  China  and 
Korea.  Hearing  from  Jozuna  what  the  topic  of 
conversation  was,  —  the  probability  of  war  between 
Japan  and  China  over  Korea,  —  Mr.  Niver  joined  in 
the  talk. 

"  Yes,  young  men,  I  too  greatly  fear  there  will  be 
war  before  many  months.  The  high-handed  proceed- 
ings of  the  Chinese  envoy  in  the  Korean  capital  will 
not  long  be  borne  by  Japan,  whose  patience  shows 
signs  of  being  exhausted.  The  Peking  government 
is  deliberately  attempting  to  thwart  Japan's  plans  of 
reform  inaugurated  by  Count  Inouye,  to  annihilate 
Korean  independence,  to  hold  Korea  in  vassalage 
to  China.  Japan  wants  her  peninsular  neighbor  to 
adopt  the  modern  civilization  of  the  West.  China  is 
forcing  Korea  to  revert  to  Chinese  semi-barbarism." 

"What  do  you  anticipate  will  be  the  outcome  if 
China  and  Japan  should  come  to  blows  ?  China  has 
vast  resources  and  no  end  of  soldiers.  Will  she  not 


72  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

soon  exhaust  Japan  ?  You  know  the  general  impres- 
sion among  Americans." 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  Niver,  "and  I  am  surprised  at  it. 
But  mark  my  words.  China  with  all  her  hordes,  and 
an  army  that  is  mighty  on  paper,  has  only  about 
twenty  thousand  real  soldiers.  Japan  has  a  thoroughly 
drilled  modern  army." 

"  Then  you  imagine  Japan  will  win  ? " 

"  Certainly.  The  Japanese  will  go  through  Korea 
and  China  as  a  knife  goes  through  cheese.  Nothing 
but  the  intervention  of  Russia,  in  combination  with 
some  European  power,  will  prevent  the  Japanese 
from  entering  Peking  and  winning  Manchuria." 

Jozuna's  eyes  snapped  as  he  heard  the  praises  of 
his  fellow-countrymen.  He  was  not  without  anxiety, 
however,  and  said  to  Mr.  Niver :  — 

"  Yes,  but  China  has  a  fleet  of  iron-clads,  some  of 
them  battleships,  while  we  have  not  one,  only  cruisers. 
Personally,  I  am  not  afraid  for  our  soldiers.  I  know 
too  well  what  they  did  in  Korea  in  Taiko's  time  in 
I572~I597>  but  our  ships  are  so  light,  and  the 
Chinese  have  some  American  officers  aboard." 

"  True,  but  the  difference  between  your  people  and 
the  Chinese  is  that  you  do  not  adopt,  you  adapt.  You 
take  a  thing  apart  to  see  how  it  is  made.  You  thus 
understand  why  a  thing  is  so.  The  Chinese  imitate, 
but  do  not  grasp  the  reason  of  a  thing.  Give  me 
valor  and  intelligence  against  mere  force  and  superior- 
ity in  numbers," 


LOVE   AND   WAR   CLOUDS.  73 

"  Jack  rather  than  the  giant,"  said  Clarence  Burn- 
ham,  with  a  laugh.  "  But  tell  me  where  will  the  first 
big  battle  be  fought?" 

"  Well,  after  the  skirmishes  and  small  affairs  south 
of  Seoul,  the  Korean  capital,  in  the  provinces  in 
which  insurrection  is  chronic,  the  decisive  battle  will 
be  at  Ping  Yang  in  the  north.  All  past  history  and 
geography  show  that.  I  believe  the  Japanese  fleet 
will  sweep  the  seas  clean,  capture  or  sink  the  big 
European-built  Chinese  ships,  or  drive  them  into  port, 
attack  them  with  their  torpedo-boats,  and  then  blow 
them  sky-high  with  their  torpedoes." 

"  Why,  Mr.  Niver,  you  believe  in  the  Japanese  even 
more  than  I,  though  I  have  grown  up  among  them." 

"  Yes,  and  haven't  I  good  reason  for  my  faith  ?  " 
and  here  his  face  glowed  with  some  inner  pleasures 
of  memory,  and  he  seemed  to  be  looking  into  the 
past.  "  Didn't  I  have  a  hand  in  opening  their  eyes 
years  ago,  and  are  not  many  of  my  own  boys,  whom 
I  helped  to  train,  now  in  the  government,  the  army, 
and  the  navy  ?  Life  in  Japan  is  worth  living  now, 
for  everything  is  open  to  the  common  people  on  a 
basis  of  justice,  —  the  courts,  the  schools,  the  army, 
navy,  business  of  every  sort,  in  a  word,  no  caste ;  and 
promotion  in  every  line  of  enterprise." 

"  Hurrah  for  the  Emperor  and  Everlasting  Great 
Japan !  "  cried  Jozuna,  half  laughing,  half  crying. 

"  But  the  forts,  which  at  Port  Arthur  and  Wei-hai- 


74  IN   THE    MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

wei  guard  the  gates  to  Peking.  What  of  those  ?  " 
asked  Clarence. 

"Trust  the  Japanese  general  to  understand  the 
flanking  business.  What  our  Stonewall  Jackson  and 
Phil  Sheridan  could  do  in  our  Civil  War  will  be  done 
in  China.  Between  the  army  and  fleets  the  forts  will 
fall." 

"  I  am  glad  to  find  you  believe  in  the  torpedo-boats, 
Mr.  Niver,  and  that  you  have  so  high  an  idea  of  our 
people,"  said  Jozuna.  "  There  are  so  few  who  'take 
Japan  seriously/  as  my  employer  says.  To  think 
that  we  must  win  honorable  recognition  by  war  and 
bloodshed,  rather  than  by  peaceful  means.  Why, 
think  of  it !  Look  at  our  medical  colleges  and  expe- 
rienced surgeons,  our  Red  Cross  Society,  our  trained 
nurses,  our  rules  of  humane  warfare,  and  then  con- 
trast these  with  China,  in  which  such  things  are 
unknown." 

"Yes,  I  am  ashamed  of  Christendom,"  said  Mr. 
Niver.  "  There  is  that  crass  superstition  of  a  '  yellow 
peril '  !  There  is  that  long  refusal  of  European  gov- 
ernments to  acknowledge  the  rights  of  Japan.  Then, 
note  the  utter  ignorance  of  so  many  of  our  people 
who  know  only  of  Japan  in  the  comic  opera  of  '  The 
Mikado/  which  of  itself  is  enough  to  make  the 
blood  of  a  Japanese  boil.  Why,  think  of  the  state  of 
affairs  in  decrepit  and  corrupt  old  China.  Only  the 
three  provinces  under  Li  Hung  Chang's  rule  will 


LOVE   AND   WAR   CLOUDS.  75 

fight  at  all.  The  other  provinces  and  millions  will 
care  next  to  nothing  as  to  what  goes  on.  It  is  im- 
possible to  get  the  truth  about  warfare  told  in  the 
distant  provinces.  The  poor  Chinese  military  must 
go  to  war  without  surgeons,  medicines,  or  a  hospital 
corps.  The  soldier  is  killed  —  happy  man  !  If  he  is 
wounded,  he  must  crawl  away  and  die  in  agony.  I 
venture  to  predict  that  as  soon  as  war  is  declared, 
all  the  Japanese  in  China  will  be  hunted  down,  and 
killed  like  wild  beasts,  while  in  Japan  the  Chinese 
will  be  protected." 

"  Good ! "  said  Clarence,  impressed  with  Mr. 
Niver's  earnestness. 

"  Yes,  and  you'll  find  that  the  Tokio  statesmen  will 
be  very  particular  not  to  offend  civilization,  but  will 
earnestly  seek  to  win  the  world's  applause.  On 
every  squadron  of  war  vessels,  and  with  every  army 
corps,  they  will  have  a  lawyer,  yes,  and  one  who 
knows  international  law.  The  Japanese  believe  in 
victories  of  peace  even  more  than  those  of  war." 

"  Hello !  some  one's  knocking.  Come  in,"  cried 
Jozuna. 

"  Telegram,"  shouted  a  small  boy  in  red-corded 
blue  coat  and  trousers  and  with  metal  frontlet.  He 
handed  a  yellow  envelope,  laid  open  on  his  time  book, 
to  Jozuna  for  signature. 

His  friend  from  Slatington  had  been  so  impressed 
with  news  from  home  and  Korea  that  he  had  tele- 


76  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

graphed :  "  Yuen's  conduct  daily  more  offensive. 
Pro-Chinese  party  in  power  in  Seoul.  Tong  Haks 
in  Seoul  petitioning  the  King  rejected.  Outbreak 
certain.  Will  bring  on  war,  for  pro-Chinese  party 
will  apply  to  Peking  for  military  aid." 

After  Jozuna  had  read  the  message  aloud,  Mr. 
Niver  remarked  quietly :  "  Yes,  that  means  war.  I 
have  studied  this  Tong  Hak  movement,  called  '  Ori- 
ental Culture,'  and  though  nominally  a  plea  for 
the  East  against  the  West,  it  is,  in  reality,  a  revolt 
against  Confucianism  and  corrupt  Korea.  It  will 
be  too  much  for  the  weak  government  of  Seoul  to 
handle.  Then  will  come  Chinese  intervention,  next 
Japan's  armed  protests,  then  war,  and  then  —  the 
skinning  of  the  dragon.  China  will  be  humbled. 
History  moves  from  Europe  to  the  East.  Good  day, 
gentlemen." 

The  two  young  men,  "just  for  fun"  and  "old 
times,"  then  went  to  a  Japanese  restaurant  in  New 
York,  dined,  and  bade  farewell  to  each  other.  Jozuna, 
still  secretive,  never  intimated  a  word  of  his  purpose, 
even  as  he  had  locked  in  his  heart  his  reasons  for 
leaving  Japan. 

He  had  read  and  acted,  but  first  he  had  prayed : 
"  Heaven  open  the  way.  Give  me  first  safe  flight  and 
arrival,  then  a  dark  night,  and  last  and  evermore  a 
full  moon,"  was  his  petition,  as  he  bowed  his  head 
and  clapped  his  hands  together. 


LOVE   AND   WAR   CLOUDS.  77 

On  his  employer's  table  next  morning  lay  a  note, 
which  on  being  opened,  read  :  "  Good-by ;  thank  you 
for  your  kindness.  You  will  never  see  me  again.  I 
have  gone  to  be  a  goose.  Jozuna." 

When  the  American  head  of  the  house  read  this 
puzzling  enigma  of  a  letter,  his  late  Japanese  helper 
was  a  hundred  leagues  on  his  westward  way  toward 
Japan,  that  island  empire  which  to  China  lies  at  the 
root  of  the  sun,  and  to  Korea  is  the  Sunrise  Kingdom, 
but  which  to  us  Americans,  with  our  New  Pacific, 
is  the  land  toward  the  sunset. 

Jozuna  faced  China,  death,  and  fame. 

Clarence  took  the  day  steamer  for  that  particular 
portion  of  land  lying  on  the  eastern  slope  in  the  Hud- 
son River  valley,  whence,  looking  across  to  the  sunset, 
the  Catskills  seem  to  be  but  a  sapphire  bed,  on  which 
lies  "the  old  man  of  the  mountain,"  enjoying  his 
unbroken  sleep  of  aeons. 

With  patriotic  thrill  and  a  joy  all  his  own,  Clarence 
drank  in  every  hour  of  that  lovely  day  in  latest  June 
as  if  it  were  a  draught  of  nectar.  He  was  seeing 
this  historic  centre  of  his  own  country.  The  elec- 
tric air,  the  fascinating  scenery,  the  joy  of  motion,  the 
animated  life  on  the  deck  around  him,  the  sure  con- 
fidence that  little  Japan  would  humble  proud  China, 
and  the  immediate  hope  of  a  week's  experiences  that 
might,  in  its  issues,  affect  happily  his  whole  life, 
marked  that  day  with  a  bright  red  letter  in  the  golden 


78  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

book  of  memory.  Along  the  glorious  Palisades, 
radiant  in  the  morning  light,  into  and  through  the 
sheen  of  Tappan  Zee,  past  Stony  Point  of  Revolu- 
tionary memory,  among  the  superb  highlands  of  the 
Hudson,  and  into  the  region  of  river-side  cities  and 
famous  historic  settlements  of  the  Huguenots,  the 
Palatines,  and  the  Netherlanders,  who  helped  so 
nobly  to  make  the  greatest  of  the  states,  the  steamer 
"  tied  up  "  early  in  the  afternoon  at  the  desired  land- 
ing-place. 

Stepping  off  the  boat,  Clarence  Burnham  found 
himself  on  a  wharf  well  filled  with  crates  and  baskets, 
and  lined  on  both  sides  with  men  trying  fisherman's 
luck.  Not  seeing  Victor  Hopewell,  whom  he  ex- 
pected, he  imagined  he  might  have  to  wait  on  the 
dock  some  time.  Remembering  that  two  college 
mates,  named  Rockerfeller  and  Lasher,  hailed  from 
this  quarter,  he  went  up  to  a  man  in  a  group  and 
asked  if  Mr.  Rockerfeller  lived  near  by.  All  four  of 
the  men  smiled,  and  one  answered  :  — 

"  Well,  yes,  about  twenty-five  of  him.  Which  one 
do  you  mean  ?  " 

Clarence,  forgetting  for  the  moment  his  college 
mate's  first  name,  answered,  "  The  one  who  is  cousin 
to  Mr.  Lasher." 

At  this  the  four  men  doubled  up  and  laughed 
heartily,  while  others,  overhearing  the  conversation, 
joined  in  a  smile  that  was  decidedly  audible. 


LOVE   AND   WAR   CLOUDS.  79 

"  Well,  sir,  there  are  at  least  twenty  of  him,  too. 
The  two  families  almost  make  this  place." 

By  the  time  that  it  became  clear  to  the  traveller 
that  he  had  dropped  into  one  of  those  Hudson  River 
settlements  in  which  there  were  large  families  with 
many  sons  and  much  intermarriage,  Victor  Hopewell 
appeared  with  carriage  and  pair  of  horses  for  the 
five-mile  ride  into  the  back  country.  He  pointed  out 
on  the  way  the  neat,  substantial-looking  homes  of  his 
college  mates.  In  about  an  hour  and  a  half  they 
had  ascended  the  slope  to  where,  on  a  ridge  over- 
looking the  landscape  and  river,  the  parsonage,  like 
a  chick  under  the  wing  of  a  mother  hen,  nestled  be- 
neath a  wide-spreading  elm. 

The  story  of  that  week  was  one  of  hearts.  It  can 
be  told  here  only  in  bare  outline. 

No  more  than  four  days  of  walks  and  drives,  of 
chat  and  reading  on  the  leafy  vine-draped  porch,  had 
passed  before  Clarence  Burnham  told  her,  yes, 
blurted  out,  his  love.  Boy-like,  he  plunged  in, 
attempting  to  capture  by  storm,  sword  in  hand, 
as  it  were,  the  intrenchments  that  guard  the  heart 
of  a  maiden  who  is  daughter,  as  well  as  damsel. 
Instead  of  making  slow  —  shall  we  say  sure  —  ap- 
proach by  zigzag  and  parallel,  he  thought,  at  least 
he  hoped,  to  win  by  immediate  assault  and  frontal 
attack.  Nor,  like  a  good  engineer,  had  he  surveyed 
the  whole  around,  or  calculated  elements  and  forces. 


80  IN  THE  MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

In  a  word,  he  was  a  brave  novice,  but  not  a  cool 
veteran. 

But  no  overwhelming  victory  was  won.  Was  it  a 
drawn  battle  ? 

The  situation  was  this.  Marian  was  a  Christian  of 
the  genuine  sort.  From  her  girlhood,  her  heart  had 
been  set  on  going  "  in  His  name  "  to  some  part  of  the 
earth  to  tell  the  good  news  of  God  to  women  as  well  as 
to  men.  The  one  intense,  yes,  the  very  deepest  feel- 
ing of  her  life  was  hostility  to  the  systems  of  pagan- 
ism that  held  down  her  sex  in  ignorance  and  cruelty. 
Ever  since  she  heard  one,  whom  she  called  "  the  sunny 
missionary,"  tell  of  beautiful  Japan,  that  yet  did  not 
educate  her  women,  her  purpose  began  to  form. 

As  she  listened  to  the  venerable  man  from  Amoy, 
who  pictured  foot-binding  and  neglect  of  Chinese 
women,  and  the  slaughter,  by  abandonment,  of 
China's  female  children,  and  heard  the  missionary 
ladies  of  Arcot  describe  the  slave  life  in  the  zenanas 
of  India,  her  resolve  was  fixed.  With  this  purpose 
ever  in  view,  she  had  entered  and  graduated  from 
Vassar  College.  Nor  had  her  resolve  weakened,  but 
was  rather  confirmed  when  her  mother,  who  had 
approved  and  inspired,  left  her  for  the  House  of 
Eternity  in  1890. 

Now,  her  father,  after  three  years'  widowerhood, 
was  about  to  remarry.  This  was  her  time  to  trans- 
late purpose  into  action.  She  had  been  already  sev- 


LOVE   AND   WAR  CLOUDS.  81 

eral  weeks  under  appointment  to  go  to  China,  and 
would  sail  in  October  —  "  missionaries'  month  "  —  on 
the  Pacific  steamer.  She  expected,  God  willing,  to 
celebrate  her  next  Christmas  and  New  Year's  Day, 
January  I,  1894,  in  Peking. 

The  golden  week  all  too  quickly  passed  away,  and 
Clarence  left  Eagle's  Nest  for  a  pedestrian  tour 
through  the  Catskill  Mountains.  After  this,  in 
search  of  both-  experience  and  emolument,  he  spent 
some  weeks  in  the  service  of  one  of  the  great  daily 
newspapers  of  the  metropolis.  He  was  astonished 
at  the  tremendous  energies  daily  evoked  for  the 
making  of  these  world-moving  powers,  and  he  real- 
ized as  never  before  how  a  metropolitan  journal  puts 
the  whole  world  under  tribute,  as  it  daily  pictures  its 
history.  Clarence  Burnham  did  not  know  but  that 
journalism  might  be  his  vocation.  At  any  rate,  the 
opportunity  of  seeing  "  the  world  and  his  wife  "  in 
their  various  places  of  behavior  and  possibilities,  was 
of  vast  value  to  him.  Human  nature,  as  seen  by  a  re- 
porter, is  amazingly  varied.  Apart  from  his  outdoor 
adventures  and  experiences,  expertness  with  the  pen 
in  the  use  of  his  native  tongue  was  with  Clarence 
Burnham  not  only  a  thing  to  be  desired,  but,  as  De 
Quincey  says,  "  It  should  be  sacred  ambition." 

The  summer  passed  away,  and  the  time  drew  near 
when,  on  the  self-same  day,  Clarence  Burnham  must 
return  to  college  and  Marian  Hopewell  was  to  cross 


82  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

the  continent  to  take  steamer  for  China.  His  ambi- 
tion was  wholly  literary,  hers  to  be  the  missionary  of 
the  Lover  of  our  Souls  to  her  sisters.  She  would 
obey  the  call  that  had  come  first.  She  would  think 
of  a  human  lover  and  of  marriage  afterward. 

So  they  parted  friends,  warm  and  true,  but  she 
under  no  vow  or  bond.  He  pleaded  that  she  would 
plight  her  troth  and  wear  on  her  finger  the  golden 
band  which  he  longed  to  place  on  it. 

"  No,"  said  she,  "  I  shall  not  bind  you.  You  are 
free ;  but  as  for  myself,  I  shall  marry  no  other. 
Don't  write  to  me.  Keep  silence ;  but  five  years 
from  this  day,  if  your  mind  changes  not,  and  your 
heart  is  the  same,  come  to  me." 

So  Clarence  Burnham  went  back  to  the  red  shale, 
to  college  work,  and  also  to  anxiety,  for  Jozuna's  talk 
and  Mr.  Niver's  prophecy  of  war  in  the  East  had  dis- 
quieted his  mind.  Few,  indeed,  could  then  foresee  the 
future ;  but  every  yard  of  the  road  to  Peking,  both  by 
land  and  water,  was  known  to  the  Japanese,  and  every 
road  of  the  Korean  path  to  Manchuria.  Quietly, 
wisely,  Japan  was  training  her  young  men  against 
the  perils  alike  of  sham  Christianity  and  the  militant 
hatred  of  China,  for  the  Middle  Kingdom  looked  upon 
Japan  as  a  renegade  and  deserter  from  the  traditions 
of  Orientalism  as  stereotyped  by  Confucius. 

We  may  now  take  a  glimpse  of  the  damsel-errant 
in  China,  and  look  into  the  mysteries  of  the  Middle 
Kingdom. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

MARIAN    HOPEWELL    IN    PEKING. 

MARIA'N  HOPEWELL  mightily  enjoyed  her 
journey  across  the  full  stretch  of  her  native 
land.     She  had  often  seen,  bathed  in,  sailed 
over,  and  played  in  the  Atlantic,  and  lived  for  weeks 
on  its  strand.     Now  she  waited  with  childlike  glee, 
and  with  some  spark  of  the  feeling  of  a  discoverer, 
for  a  sight  of  the  wonderful  Pacific,  so  associated  in 
her  mind  with  Spaniards  and  pirates  and  Sir  Francis 
Drake,  and   American  whalers,  explorers,  missiona- 
ries, and  pioneers. 

In  crossing  the  flowery  prairies,  moving  swiftly 
through  the  canons,  as  the  locomotive  whistle  awoke 
a  chorus  of  echoes,  in  climbing  up  or  sliding  down 
the  Sierras,  she  found  few  of  the  striking  phenomena 
of  which  her  father  had  told  her.  Twenty-five  years 
before  he  had  journeyed  on  wheel  and  rail  from 
Manhattan  to  the  Golden  Gate,  and  had  seen  many 
wonders  now  vanished.  The  " cities"  of  prairie 
dogs,  the  herds  of  antelope,  the  occasional  drove 
of  bison,  the  canvas  villages  and  board  towns,  the 

83 


84  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

crowds  of  blanketed  and  begging  Indians  at  each 
station,  were  things  of  the  past. 

Though  she  looked  for  some  man  that  had  been 
once  scalped,  she  found  none.  Instead  of  finding 
Cheyenne  a  group  of  shanties,  she  saw  a  fair,  fresh 
city  of  elegant  dwellings,  noble  church  spires,  and 
imposing  school  buildings,  with  all  the  signs  of  more 
glorious  things  to  come.  Every  day  was  an  exhilara- 
tion, and  the  ride  through  the  Sierras  a  rapture. 

In  San  Francisco  she  was  met  by  Dr.  Clinton,  the 
veteran  missionary  —  or  apostle,  to  use  a  Greek  word 
meaning  exactly  the  same  thing  —  with  whom  and 
his  wife  she  was  to  cross  the  Pacific.  In  build, 
appearance,  rugged  strength,  quiet  dignity,  kind- 
liness, and  a  genius  for  being  helpful,  he  reminded 
her  of  nothing  more  than  that  famous  Dutch  in- 
vention called  a  domme-kracht,  which  we  call  a  jack- 
screw. 

On  her  way  over  she  had  this  stumpy  tool  give  an 
exhibition  of  power  that  surprised  her.  One  of  the 
trucks  of  the  Pullman  car  needed  repairs  in  some 
part  of  its  interior  economy.  The  train  was  stopped 
and  the  tool  brought.  In  five  minutes,  with  the  ap- 
plication of  the  muscle  of  a  single  man  to  the  levers 
of  the  jack-screws,  the  whole  truck  and  rear  half  of 
the  car  were  lifted  and  the  defect  quickly  righted. 
Somehow  she  correlated  the  jack-screw  and  the  mis- 
sionary, for  he  seemed  to  be  one  of  the  lifters  of  the 


MARIAN    HOPEWELL   IN    PEKING.  85 

empire  of  China.  In  her  letters  home  she  always 
spoke  playfully  of  her  elderly  friend  as  "Jack." 
One  day,  happening  to  tell  Dr.  Clinton  of  her  fan- 
cies, he  exclaimed :  — 

"  A  compliment,  indeed.  Supposing  that  I  call  you 
'  Yeast  Cake,'  for  I  expect  you  to  raise  up  the  mass 
around  you.  There's  room  in  China  for  all  the 
chemical  and  spiritual,  as  well  as  mechanical,  force 
one  can  bring." 

"  Mechanical !  Why,  Doctor,  then  you  believe  in 
engines  and  telegraph  poles." 

"  Yes,  I  profess  to  the  world  that  I  am  an  advance 
agent  of  Christianity  and  soap,  and  I  want  my  fellow- 
countrymen  to  bring  machine  shops,  railways,  and 
engineering  of  many  sorts.  Next  to  the  gospel,  our 
Chinese  brothers  need  soap  and  oxygen,  drainage 
and  ventilation.  Somehow  they  seem  to  have  an 
antipathy  to  pure  air,  water  and  machinery." 

"  They  need  godliness,  and  what  is  next  to  it  also. 
What  else,  Doctor  ?  " 

"  Much  in  all  directions.  So  much,  my  young 
friend,  that  I  look  upon  the  man  or  woman  who 
has  for  China's  diseases  only  one  specific,  as  a  crank. 
You'll  meet  many  of  this  variety  of  our  species.  One 
man  thinks  railroads  are  the  panacea ;  another,  unre- 
stricted trade ;  another,  science  and  general  education ; 
another,  foreign  conquest  by  one  nation  or  partition 
among  several ;  but  the  most  numerous  specimens  of 


86  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

the  species  you  and  I  are  apt  to  meet  are  of  the 
evangelistic  sort,  who  fancy  that  what  they  call  the 
gospel  —  especially  their  stripe  —  is  the  heal-all  and 
save-all." 

"Why,  isn't  it,  Doctor?" 

"  Certainly,  when  it  is  pure  and  original  —  the 
Christ's  own,  that  gives  a  man  not  only  a  new  mind, 
but  makes  over  his  body  and  improves  the  home 
and  society.  I  welcome  the  engineer,  teacher, 
plumber,  trader,  printer,  and  any  and  all  good  men 
and  women  who  will  open  my  Chinese  brother's 
eyes,  get  him  out  of  his  rut,  help  him  to  see  the 
wealth  in  the  ground,  and  know  what  the  fertile  earth 
and  its  hidden  treasures  can  do  for  him.  Most  of 
all,  I  want  God's  truth  to  so  fill  the  Chinaman's  mind 
that  he  will  have  no  room  for  the  devils  and  demons 
that  now  crowd  his  universe.  I  want  all  parasites 
and  microbes  of  paganism  killed  off.  Convince 
a  Chinaman  of  the  Heavenly  Father's  love  and  of 
ours  who  represent  Him,  and  China's  greatest  curse 
—  witchcraft  —  is  banished." 

"Witchcraft!  Are  the  Chinese  bothered  with 
that?  Anything  like  the  Salem  variety?" 

"  It  overspreads  every  function  of  life  in  China. 
It  is  like  the  colossal  roc  in  Arabian  Nights  story. 
Its  eggs  hatch  out  every  form  of  deviltry  known, 
and  will  yet  ruin  China.  You'll  see  enough  of  it 
when  you  are  among  people  who  think  the  dragon 


MARIAN    HOPEWELL   IN   PEKING.  87 

swallows  the  sun,  and  who  kill  or  save  their  babies 
according  to  the  dogmas  of  witchcraft." 

"  Do  you  think  these  witchcraft  ideas  are  power- 
ful enough  to  drive  men  into  fanaticism  ?  Have  they 
had  anything  to  do  with  the  outbreaks  of  mob  violence 
in  times  past  ?  " 

"  I  really  believe  so,  and  if  ever  there  is  any  gen- 
eral uprising  against  foreigners,  I  fear  for  the  peace 
of  China.  Any  unscrupulous  Tartar  in  high  office 
could  make  a  political  engine  of  this  feeling  among 
the  masses  and  direct  it  against  '  the  outside  barba- 
rians,' as  they  call  us.  But  don't  fear." 

"  I  shall  not,"  laughed  Marian.  "  I  have  counted 
the  cost." 

This  ended  their  conversation  for  that  day,  and  the 
next  they  were  on  the  ship. 

We  pass  over  the  details  of  the  journey  across  the 
greatest  of  oceans.  There  was  the  usual  company 
of  merchants,  tourists,  missionaries,  naval  officers, 
going  out  to  relieve  comrades,  returning  Japanese, 
and  characters  of  every  sort. 

After  twenty-five  days  of  life  afloat,  weary  of  water 
both  blue  and  yellow,  Marian  was  glad  to  set  foot 
upon  soil  that,  for  five  years'  at  least,  was  to  be  as 
home  to  her.  After  the  usual  stops  at  the  ports  of 
Japan,  enabling  the  party  to  get  a  glimpse  of  the 
"  Princess  Country "  and  its  evergreen  beauty,  the 
steamer  ploughed  her  way  westwardly  to  Shanghai. 


88  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

One  morning  she  noticed  that  the  deep  sapphire 
tinge  of  the  water  had  changed  to  dingy  yellow. 
She  asked  Dr.  Clinton  the  cause. 

"  Nothing  more  than  Tibet  and  Mongolia  come 
down  to  flavor  the  Pacific,  and  give  it  local  color. 
It's  like  the  Chinese  themselves,"  said  the  Doctor, 
who  rarely  lost  a  chance  to  philosophize. 

"  In  what  way  ?  " 

"The  Yang-tse  River  has  for  ages  been  carrying 
down  the  fine  soil  from  the  mountains  and  plateaus, 
a  thousand  miles  back  in  the  interior,  and  depositing 
it  to  form  whole  provinces.  Kiang-su,  the  first  land 
and  province  we  shall  see,  is  all  alluvial.  So  the 
character  of  the  people  in  China  has  been  formed  by 
precedent  and  habit  for  two  thousand  years  and  more, 
and  neither  these  nor  the  people  can  be  changed  in 
a  day." 

"  So  the  Chinese  will  not  reform  quickly,  then,  like 
the  Japanese." 

"  No,  indeed.  The  islanders  can  easily  throw 
away  what  they  only  borrowed.  The  Chinese  will 
be  in  no  hurry  to  part  with  what  their  ancestors 
invented  and  the  ages  have  tested." 

Marian  Hope  well's  particular  work  in  Peking  was 
to  assist  her  friend,  Mrs.  Drayton,  a  veteran  in  the 
service  of  the  Master,  whom  she  had  met  while  in 
Vassar  College,  and  who  by  one  broad  hint  and  warm 
invitation  to  Marian  to  be  her  fellow-worker  had 


MARIAN   HOPEWELL   IN   PEKING.  89 

clinched  the  nail  of  resolve  which  others  had  driven. 
Mrs.  Drayton,  once  a  maiden  of  rare  beauty  and 
graces  which  came  both  from  inheritance  and  culti- 
vation, a  lover  of  society  and  of  good  things,  withal 
an  heiress  of  tens  of  thousands,  had  wedded  and  was 
a  widow  within  twenty  months.  Though  reared  in 
a  Philadelphia  family  noted  during  generations  for 
liberal  giving,  —  no  alabaster  box  or  priceless  oint- 
ment being  thought  too  good  for  the  Lover  of  Souls, 
—  Mary  Drayton  astonished  her  friends  one  day  by 
the  quiet  announcement  that  she  was  going  to  China, 
and  would  take  her  fortune  with  her. 

And  she  did.  In  China's  capital  she  spent  wisely 
her  fortune,  making  every  tael  tell  for  her  yellow 
sister's  sake.  She  trained  Chinese  girls  in  the  arts 
of  the  needle,  the  nursery,  bedroom,  and  kitchen,  and 
taught  them  how  to  make  homes  measurably  like 
that  from  which  she  had  come.  She  introduced 
them  to  the  noblest  literature  this  race  has  produced. 
Severe  in  opinion,  and  hating  with  perfect  hatred  that 
Confucian  system  in  vogue  about  her  that  meant 
atheism  in  philosophy  and  degradation  of  woman, 
she  was  all  sunshine  and  help  in  the  Mission  Home. 

After  twenty  years  of  toil  in  China's  unpaved  capi- 
tal city,  which  is  all  mud  in  wet,  and  dust  in  dry, 
weather,  she  visited  her  home  land.  Shrinking  from 
public  address,  she  influenced  more  than  one  life  by 
her  quiet  conversation.  Through  her  many  a  noble 


90  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

American  girl  was  led  to  follow  her  Master  gladly, 
even  along  thorny  paths  in  China. 

To  Marian  Hopewell  it  was  a  wonderful  revelation 
of  sweet  womanhood  to  live  in  the  same  home  with 
the  now  silver-haired  Mary  Drayton.  Such  discov- 
eries were  as  secret  springs  enriching  her  own  soul. 

Years  before,  after  her  first  homesickness  at  Vas- 
sar,  she  had  written  home  that  she  had  never  known 
that  there  were  so  many  lovely  girls  in  the  world. 
Again,  even  in  China,  a  sweet  surprise  awaited  her. 
She  had  never  seen  at  close  range  any  Chinese  but 
those  men  whose  interests  were  chiefly  in  what  related 
to  soap,  water,  starch,  and  washable  clothing.  Now, 
to  be  with  pretty  babies  and  little  girls  with  olive  skin 
as  soft  as  velvet,  with  eyes  merry  with  laughter  and 
bright  with  affection,  gave  her  new  ideas  of  humanity 
in  this  part  of  the  world  and  opened  her  mind's  eyes 
widely.  It  seemed  as  though  all  China  had  bathed 
seven  times  in  the  river  Jordan. 

It  was  like  discovering  a  new  world  to  learn  that 
the  Chinese  had  plenty  of  poetry,  and  that  among  the 
little  folks  or  their  nurses  hundreds  of  "  Mother 
Goose  "  rhymes  and  jingles  were  current.  For  every 
finger  and  toe  of  the  baby  there  was  a  nonsense  story 
or  bit  of  nursery  lore.  Not  a  few  of  the  pretty  fairy 
stories  she  heard  from  the  Chinese  women  who  helped 
in  the  Home,  were  like  those  with  which  her  own 
memory  was  stored  from  Grimm  or  the  "Tanglewood 


MARIAN    HOPEWELL   IN    PEKING.  91 

Tales."  Many  of  the  games  of  the  boys  and  girls  in 
the  street  seemed  very  pretty.  Often  they  were  very 
lively.  Occasionally  some  of  the  travelling  showmen 
that  amuse  young  folks  were  invited  in,  and  for  a 
sum  in  cash  equal  to  a  dime  of  our  money  the  whole 
household  could  be  entertained  with  the  Chinese 
Punch  and  Judy,  a  trained  bear's  tricks,  a  boy  acro- 
bat, or  the  funny  and  startling  wonders  wrought  by 
sleight  of  hand. 

Yet  there  was  a  dark  side  also  in  the  Chinese  girl's 
life.  The  pagan  fashion  of  foot  binding,  which  com- 
pressed the  feet  into  unnatural  smallness,  was  a  source 
of  pain  that  shadowed  half  the  young  life. 

Night  life  in  Peking  was  in  one  respect  strange. 
When  cloudy  or  very  dark,  there  was  a  silence  as  of 
death ;  whereas,  on  moonlight  evenings,  Marian  heard, 
even  from  afar,  a  continual  buzz  and  hum  from  the 
moving  crowds.  One  evening,  in  company  with  Dr. 
Clinton  and  one  of  the  senior  helpers  in  the  native 
church,  Marian  took  a  walk  through  the  most  popu- 
lous part  of  the  great  city  to  see  and  hear.  They 
were  provided  with  lanterns  and  candles.  In  Asiatic 
countries,  where  public  street  lighting  is  not  the  rule, 
municipal  law  requires  all  abroad  to  carry  lanterns. 

In  passing  along  a  street  in  which  were  the  walled 
gardens  of  some  wealthy  man,  a  scream  of  pain  was 
heard  from  inside  the  wall. 

"  Oh,  dear  !  what's  that  ?  "  cried  Marian,  who  imag- 


92  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

ined  a  murder  might  be  going  on.  "  It's  a  girl's  voice. 
Is  she  being  killed  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no,  only  by  fashion,"  answered  Dr.  Clinton, 
quietly.  "  Murder  among  ordinary  people  is  very 
rare  in  China." 

"It's  only  a  little  girl  getting  her  feet  bound," 
explained  the  Chinese  gentleman.  "  It  hurts  very 
much  for  a  few  weeks,  though  sometimes  for  years." 

"  Ai-oh,  ai-oh ! "  moaned  the  poor  creature,  and 
then  a  shriek  pierced  the  air,  —  or  at  least  Marian's 
ears. 

"  Is  she  lying  out  on  the  ground  or  on  the  grass?" 
asked  Marian. 

"  No,  she  is  in  bed,  but  the  bed  is  in  an  outhouse 
or  a  summer  pavilion  in  the  garden." 

"  Why  do  they  put  her  there  ?  " 

"  Because  it  is  the  rule  that  if  the  girl  cries  so  as 
to  disturb  her  father  and  mother,  she  must  sleep 
somewhere  outdoors." 

Stopping  for  a  moment,  and  with  the  aid  of  the 
lantern,  the  Chinese  teacher  showed  by  motions  how, 
after  happy  babyhood  was  over,  the  girl's  feet  were 
so  squeezed  with  stout  bandages  that  foot  and  toes 
were  crushed  into  a  hoof,  or,  as  he,  using  the  native 
term,  called  it,  a  "golden  lily."  The  pain  was  excru- 
ciating. 

"  Oh,  why  do  they  —  how  can  they  —  practise  such 
cruelty  ? " 


MARIAN   HOPEWELL  IN   PEKING.  93 

"  Lady,  in  China,  a  girl  cannot  get  a  husband 
if  she  have  natural,  or,  as  our  people  say,  big 
feet." 

The  thought  of  millions  of  girls  at  that  moment 
in  China  writhing  in  torture  was  like  a  pang  of 
physical  pain  to  Marian.  She  wondered  if  there 
were  not  some  way  of  rescuing  the  poor,  crying 
sufferer. 

"  No,"  said  Dr.  Clinton ;  "  this  is  a  respectable 
family  and  home,  and  their  privacy  is  inviolate. 
Besides,  you'll  have  enough  to  try  your  feelings. 
Better  save  your  sympathies  and  turn  them  all  in  the 
channel  that  will  tell  best  in  results.  This  is  just 
why  I  consented  to  give  you  this  night's  adventure 
and  experience.  I  have  something  else  in  reserve 
for  you." 

About  half  a  mile  farther  they  stopped  at  a  house 
of  the  ordinary  sort  that  seemed  to  be  well  known  to 
the  Chinese  helper,  who  gave  a  low,  peculiar  sound, 
or  call,  that  was  answered  promptly  from  within.  It 
was  a  woman  about  forty  years  old  that  appeared. 

"  Is  it  cast  out  ?  "  asked  the  helper. 

"Yes,  'twas  laid  down  three  hours  ago.  It  cried 
awhile,  but  it  has  been  silent  for  some  time.  I  think 
it  is  dead  now.  Will  you  and  your  honorable  friends 
see  it  ? "  asked  the  woman. 

Dr.  Clinton  whispered  to  Marian  that  this  woman 
was  an  attendant  at  his  mission  chapel,  and  the  ser- 


94  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

vant  in  the  family  of  a  Chinese  ivory-carver,  who 
lived  in  this  house.  He  also  told  Marian  not  to  utter 
a  word,  and  especially  to  restrain  any  expression  of 
her  feelings. 

On  the  floor  of  a  sort  of  a  storeroom  or  outhouse 
lay  a  baby,  apparently  seven  months  old.  It  was 
wrapped  up,  indeed,  but  only  with  one  thickness  of 
its  ordinary  clothes,  so  that  its  sex  could  not  be  de- 
termined. It  was  not  specially  wizened  or  thin,  and 
bore  no  outward  marks  of  disease.  In  very  low 
whispers  the  woman  explained  to  Dr.  Clinton,  who 
translated  quickly  to  Marian,  that  it  was  a  female 
child,  and  that  for  four  weeks  or  more  some  mysteri- 
ous disorder  of  the  bowels  had  troubled  the  little  one, 
causing  it  to  cry  a  great  deal,  and  thus  disturb  its 
parents'  sleep.  No  medicine  seemed  to  reach  the 
trouble,  and  the  native  doctor  had  given  it  up.  The 
mother  pleaded  that  they  should  wait  another  week 
and  keep  on  trying  remedies,  but  the  father  decided 
that  it  was  not  a  real  child,  but  only  one  that  seemed 
to  be  a  human  being,  and  in  reality  a  demon.  So 
the  usual  Chinese  custom  was  followed,  and  the 
expense  of  a  funeral  saved. 

"  A  clear  case  of  belief  in  witchcraft !  The  Chi- 
nese think  evil  spirits  possess  children.  When  medi- 
cines fail  to  operate  properly,  they  think  the  child  is 
bewitched  or  demon-possessed.  So  they  expose  it  in 
an  outhouse.  If  it  survives,  which  is  very  rare,  all  is 


MARIAN   HOPEWELL   IN   PEKING.  95 

well.  They  nourish  and  rear  it.  If  it  dies,  they 
conclude  it  was -only  a  demon.  Not  so  very  different, 
you  see,  from  the  way  our  ancestors  had  for  detect- 
ing witches.  They  threw  them  in  the  water.  If 
they  sunk  and  drowned,  they  were  innocent.  If  they 
floated  and  swam,  they  were  witches." 

"  Poor  thing  !  Oh,  God,  strengthen  me  to  fight  for 
mercy  and  truth  !  "  It  was  Marian's  heart,  not  lips, 
that  spoke.  The  Chinese  woman  lifted  up  the  little 
pallid  form.  It  was  rigid.  No  warmth  of  life  was 
there.  Marian  touched  its  little  cheek  and  felt  a  cold 
thrill. 

"  It  will  soon  be  time  to  give  notice  to  my  master, 
who  told  me  to  report  to  him  before  the  hour  of  the 
passing  of  the  dead  cart." 

"  That's  economy.  It  saves  the  expense  of  funer- 
als," said  Dr.  Clinton.  "Come,  we  must  leave." 
He  gave  the  woman  a  small  coin,  and  thanked  her. 

The  party  then  proceeded  to  the  helper's  house. 
Within  were  no  idol  shelf  or  ancestral  tablets.  The 
usual  smells,  in  which  incense  was  the  first  and  bean 
oil  the  next,  seemed  to  be  absent  from  this  plain  but 
very  neat  home,  into  which  the  helper's  wife  bade 
them  warm  welcome.  With  true  courtesy  she  seemed 
to  welcome  and  enjoy  the  visit  of  the  American 
young  lady,  while  the  presence  of  Dr.  Clinton  was 
sufficiently  familiar  to  take  away  that  sense  of  em- 
barrassment which  is  so  apt  to  torment  a  woman  in  a 


96  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

land  where  social  life  —  as  understood  in  Christen- 
dom —  is  unknown. 

The  purpose  of  a  visit  at  such  an  unusual  hour  had 
been  previously  explained.  So  the  good  Chinese 
housewife  had  ready  refreshments  of  hot  tea,  rice, 
and  cakes,  which  were  grateful  to  the  palate  and 
keenly  enjoyed  by  all. 

"We  are  quite  imperial  in  our  hours  to-night,  or 
shall  I  say  this  morning,"  for  it  was  just  past  mid- 
night, as  Dr.  Clinton  spoke. 

"  Why  so  ?  "  asked  Marian. 

"  Because  the  Emperor  always  gives  audience  at 
daybreak,  and  sometimes  as  early  as  2  A.M.  Indeed, 
one  country,  long  a  vassal  of  the  Middle  Kingdom, 
takes  even  its  name  from  this  circumstance." 

"  Oh,  do  you  refer  to  Cho-sen  or  Korea  ?  I 
always  thought  the  name,  meaning  Morning  Radi- 
ance or  Matin  Calm,  came  from  its  own  beautiful 
scenery." 

"No;  I  rather  suspect  '  the  little  Outpost  State,' 
'the  little  sister  among  the  nations/  'our  vassal,'  as 
the  Chinese  say,  took  its  poetical  name  from  the  favor 
granted  at  an  audience  with  the  Chinese  Emperor  in 
the  hour  of  dawn." 

"  Then,  if  in  the  war  which  you  think  must  come 
soon  between  China  and  Japan,  the  little  peninsular 
kingdom  is  made  free  and  independent,  'its  name  will 
be  changed  ?" 


MARIAN   HOPEWELL   IN   PEKING.  97 

"  Yes,  I  rather  think  so.  Being  so  small,  it  will  of 
course  assume  a  lofty  style  and  title  and  become  an 
empire,  say  Dai  Han,  or  Great  Han,  with  an  em- 
peror." 

After  this  chat  on  things  past  and  future,  the  house- 
wife prepared  a  couch  with  screens  in  one  of  the 
three  rooms  that  make  up  the  average  Chinese  house, 
that  Marian  might  have  two  or  three  hours  of  rest, 
while  all  sat  dozing  until  nearly  four  o'clock,  when 
they  were  awakened  by  the  rumbling  of  the  dead 
cart. 

All  rose,  and  without  lighting  their  lanterns,  for  it 
was  quite  light,  they  went  out.  They  first  took  a  look 
at  the  vehicle.  It  was  a  big,  clumsy  affair,  drawn  by 
two  oxen,  and  across  the  front  of  it  were  large  Chinese 
characters  which  read  "  For  Infant  Corpses."  Fol- 
lowing it  for  over  half  a  mile,  they  saw  the  vehicle 
stop  at  three  places  and  receive  what  seemed  bundles 
of  rice  straw,  which  in  reality  contained  the  dead 
bodies  of  little  ones,  which  were  thus  disposed  of  in 
mass,  without  the  expense  of  so  many  individual 
funerals. 

Satisfied  with  her  investigation  into  Chinese  methods 
of  economy,  Marian  thanked  the  native  helper  and 
bade  him  good-by.  She  was  accompanied  farther, 
even  to  the  door  of  the  Mission  Home,  by  Dr. 
Clinton. 

After  this  night  adventure,  life  for  Marian  resumed 


98  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

its  ordinary  round.  In  the  outward  monotony  of 
daily  tasks  and  toil,  she  found  wondrous  variety  of 
thought  in  thus  coming  daily  in  contact  with  a  new 
type  of  mind.  Her  own  being  "  set  to  hallow  "  all 
she  found,  she  won,  as  Keble's  verse  promises,  "  new 
treasures  still,  of  countless  price." 

Nevertheless,  she  did  not  forget  the  student  who 
had  asked  her  to  share  her  life  with  his.  She  had, 
indeed,  placed  the  seals  of  silence  upon  him,  but  this 
was  but  to  test  the  strength  of  his  affection.  In  joy- 
ful hope  she  waited  during  years,  as  many  as  the 
fingers  of  her  hand.  She  wondered  where  and  how 
they  should  meet. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

AS   A    SHUTTLE,    TO    AND    FRO. 

WHEN  Clarence  Burnham  found  that  Jozuna 
had  left  New  York  and  started  for  his 
home  land,  he  felt  more  lonely  than  ever. 
With  the  one  he  loved  passionately,  and  his  boy  hood's 
friend  and  travel  companion  both  in  the  Far  East,  he 
was  seized  with  a  desperate  fit  of  the  blues,  of  home- 
sickness, of  desire  to  be  at  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
He  cancelled  an  engagement  in  athletics,  withdrew 
from  his  comrades,  and  hied  to  Willow  Grove  ceme- 
tery. There,  walking  in  the  paths  and  among  the 
mounds  and  the  monuments  inscribed  with  the  pic- 
ture language  of  the  Far  East,  he  found  congenial 
exercise  of  his  emotions  and  relief  to  his  feelings  of 
sadness.  The  news  from  beyond  the  Pacific  por- 
tended war,  and  somehow  Clarence  Burnham's 
thought  ran  on  dying  for  one's  country.  He  pic- 
tured death  on  the  battle-field,  the  war-ship's  red 
deck,  or  patriotic  sacrifice  on  the  torpedo-boat. 

"  They  all  served  their  country  well,"  said  Clarence, 
half  aloud,  as  he  read  the  Japanese  inscriptions,  and 

99 


ioo  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

compared  the  eager  ambitions  of  those  who  died  in 
bed  and  were  shrouded  in  serge  with  those  who  might 
die  on  deck  or  be  shrouded  in  ice.  Despite  the  cold 
of  late  February,  he  sat  on  the  graves  and  thought  of 
Japan,  wondering  if  in  the  shock  of  battle  with  great 
China  the  smaller  nation  should  emerge  victorious. 
Japan  had  turned  her  back  on  China's  effete  civiliza- 
tion, and  had  turned  her  face  to  the  West  and  to  Chris- 
tendom. This,  China  would  never  forgive,  and  since 
Japan's  action  might  loosen  the  allegiance  of  other 
vassal  and  pupil  nations,  the  Peking  government 
looked  upon  Japan,  not  only  as  a  renegade,  but  as 
"  a  neighbor-disturbing  nation."  If  there  were 
war,  would  not  Japan  with  her  superb  army  make 
conquests  on  the  Asiatic  continent,  and  then  would 
not  European  nations,  nay  might  not  our  own 
country,  be  drawn  in  the  vortex  of  war  ?  At  least, 
would  not  our  soldiers  as  well  as  sailors  be  needed 
to  protect  Americans  in  the  ports  of  China  and 
Japan  ? 

Was  it  strange  that  then  and  there  Clarence  Burn- 
ham  fell  into  a  revery,  wondering  if  he  should  ever 
be  a  soldier.  He  smiled  at  the  idea,  when  a  voice 
seemed  to  say,  — 

"  You  will." 

He  started  and  looked  around.  There  was  no  one 
near.  He  heard  nothing  more,  but  he  did  feel  a  mo- 
mentary chill,  as  if  he  had  been  unconscious  of  the 


AS  A   SHUTTLE,   TO   AND   FRO.  101 

flight  of  time  while  sitting  on  the  frozen  ground, 
longer  than  a  wise  man,  even  with  a  thick  ulster  over- 
coat, ought  to  do.  He  had  no  sooner  turned  from 
the  side  into  the  main  avenue  of  the  cemetery  than 
he  saw  a  telegraph  boy  dismounting  from  a  bicycle 
at  the  gate  outside. 

He  had  a  cablegram  addressed  to  Clarence  Burn- 
ham,  whom,  after  much  seeking  and  inquiry,  he  had 
now  found.  Clarence  tore  open  the  flap.  The  mes- 
sage was  in  type- script  and  read  at  a  glance  :  /'Your 
mother  died  yesterday.  Await  letter." 

When  Clarence  Burnham  read  the  words,  he  was 
dazed.  It  seemed  not  the  first,  but  the  third  heavy 
stroke  of  Providence.  The  words  of  an  ancient  suf- 
ferer rose  to  his  lips,  "  Lover  and  friend  hast  thou 
put  far  from  me  and  mine  acquaintance  into  dark- 
ness." The  bitter  pangs  of  grief  were  his  as  he 
thought  of  his  mother,  now  no  longer  on  earth,  as  the 
one  from  whom  he  had  first  learned  love.  No  more 
would  her  help  and  counsel  be  his.  A  great  spring 
and  inspiration  in  life  were  gone. 

Yet  even  in  that  very  first  moment  of  keen  sorrow, 
there  was  still  another  feeling,  scarcely  less  painful 
to  bear.  He  felt  a  presentiment  that  his  student  days 
were  over  and  his  hopes  of  literary  fame  dashed,  his 
ambitions  stifled. 

The  college  men  wondered  during  the  next  week 
or  two  what  was  the  matter  with  Burnham.  He 


102  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

evaded  answers  to  direct  questioning,  and  said  noth- 
ing about  his  private  grief. 

Until  his  father's  letter  came,  he  was  haunted  by 
vague  fears  that  his  career  as  a  student  was  closed. 
It  was  his  mother  that  had  always  encouraged  him 
to  study,  and  bade  him  look  forward  to  the  life  of  a 
scholar  and  writer.  For  his  wife's  sake,  Mr.  Burn- 
ham  had  yielded,  though  he  preferred  his  oldest 
child  to  be  a  business  man,  and  ultimately  to  become 
partner  with  him. 

Would  now  his  father  summon  him  to  Japan  to 
put  him  in  the  hong,  or  counting-house  ?  The  idea 
of  leaving  the  world  of  books,  of  students  and  pro- 
fessors, and  all  the  glory  and  fun  on  "  the  banks  of 
the  old  Raritan,"  was  terrible.  To  go  back  to  Japan 
to  spend  his  days  with  tricky  Japanese  traders, 
among  Chinese  shroffs  (money  changers),  in  hand- 
ling bales  of  silk,  and  in  shipping  goods,  was  not 
to  his  taste.  To  watch  the  market  for  "hanks," 
"reels,"  cocoons  "whole"  or  "pierced,"  to  look  after 
bantos  (clerks)  and  godowns  (storehouses),  seemed 
not  only  unattractive,  but  monotonous  and  dismal. 

He  was  not  long  kept  in  suspense.  Before  the 
end  of  March  came  the  black-edged  envelope  con- 
taining the  letter  expected  and  feared.  It  told  the 
story  of  brief  illness  and  of  quick  parting  of  wife 
and  mother  from  her  dear  ones.  It  was  pleasant 
to  know  that  Mrs.  Burnham  had  so  endeared  herself 


AS  A   SHUTTLE,   TO   AND   FRO.  103 

to  the  Japanese  women  and  children,  working  for 
their  good  —  "just  like  a  missionary,"  as  was  said. 
They  asked  for  the  privilege,  which  was  given,  of 
rearing  over  her  grave  a  fitting  memorial  stone. 

This  was  like  a  wafting  of  perfume,  as  when 
winds  blow  laden  with  the  offering  of  flowers  that 
bloom  in  the  night  Clarence  not  only  loved  his 
mother  in  filial  devotion,  but  was  never  happier  than 
when  others  seemed  to  appreciate  her.  He  was 
touched  by  the  tokens  of  love  won  by  an  alien  from 
the  native  people.  To  him  the  Japanese  were  not 
"strangers,"  "heathen,"  or  oddities  of  creation,  but 
real  human  beings,  as  certainly  children  of  the 
Heavenly  Father  as  men  with  white  skins  or 
straight  eyelids.  This  part  of  his  father's  letter 
made  his  eyes  moisten. 

Then  followed  what  seemed  the  decision  of  fate. 
For  several  years  past  the  conditions  of  business 
had  threatened  to  compel  a  change.  Mr.  Burnham 
proposed  to  settle  in  Yokohama  and  begin  business 
under  different  methods.  The  loss  of  his  wife  pre- 
cipitated this  decision.  Clarence  must  leave  college, 
choose  a  business  career  as  helper  of  his  father,  and 
set  out  from  New  Brunswick  at  once. 

There  could  be  no  arguing,  denying,  or  evading. 
"The  decree  of  the  Emperor  is  like  perspiration  — 
it  never  goes  back,"  says  the  homely  Japanese  prov- 
erb. To  Clarence  Burnham  the  word  of  his  father 


104  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

was  as  imperial  decree.  Whether  hard  or  easy, 
pleasant  or  unpleasant,  he  would  be  as  a  Samurai  of 
Japan,  and  obey  with  alacrity.  Had  his  father  bid- 
den him  commit  hara-kiri  and  open  his  body  in  token 
of  a  son's  loyalty,  who  could  doubt  but  that  Clarence 
would  have  promptly  obeyed  ?  Living  among  the 
Japanese  had  stiffened  this  American's  ideas  of  loy- 
alty and  service. 

One  rosy  streak  lay  on  the  dark  sky  of  his  parent's 
command.  It  appealed  to  the  lad's  love  of  adven- 
ture. Mr.  Burnham  had  some  accounts  to  settle  at 
Shanghai  and  Tientsin,  before  he  took  the  new  step 
in  business.  Clarence  could  go  to  China  from  San 
Francisco,  and,  if  he  wished,  —  since  he  might  get 
no  further  vacation  for  many  months,  —  come  back 
to  Japan  via  Korea. 

"  Well,  I  must  make  the  best  of  it,"  said  Clarence, 
as  he  folded  up  the  letter.  Then  notifying  Prex 
and  the  faculty,  he  quickly  disposed  of  his  portable 
belongings  in  trunk  and  grip,  turning  over  as 
souvenirs  to  his  Japanese  student  friends  all  the 
adornments  of  his  room  and  various  college  trophies 
that  were  not  of  a  personal  nature.  In  New  York 
he  called  on  his  quondam  friend,  the  newspaper 
manager,  who  hinted  to  Clarence  that  genuine  news 
from  Japan  was  always  welcome. 

We  pass  over  the  details  of  the  journey  which 
Clarence  Burnham  took  westward  in  order  to  get  to 


AS  A   SHUTTLE,   TO   AND    FRO.  105 

the  Far  East.  In  five  days  he  had  crossed  the  great 
United  States,  whose  grandeur  in  area  and  variety 
of  resources  one  can  never  fully  appreciate  until  he 
has  made  the  same  record  of  travel  and  observation. 
Making  prompt  connection  with  the  steamer  at  San 
Francisco,  sixteen  days  were  spent  between  the 
Golden  Gate  and  Yedo  Bay. 

Like  good  fortune  awaited  him  in  Yokohama,  and 
after  making  quick  passage  thence,  between  one 
sunrise  and  a  second  sunset  to  Kobe,  he  looked 
again  upon  the  scenery  of  his  boyhood.  He  saw 
again  his  father  and  brothers  and  sisters,  visited  his 
mother's  grave,  during  the  steamer's  stay  of  one  day. 
He  was  on  deck  again,  when  the  full  moon  revealed 
once  more,  as  he  had  so  often  seen  it  in  childhood  and 
dreamed  of  it  in  America,  the  lovely  land,  and,  what 
the  Dutch  call  the  water-scape,  of  ocean-girded  Japan. 

"  It  must  seem  hard  to  you,  my  boy,  after  cutting 
short  your  college  career,  to  send  you  off  so  sum- 
marily to  China ;  but  the  business  is  pressing,  and 
what  I  most  fear  is  the  quick  outbreak  of  war.  In- 
deed, even  as  it  is,  hostilities  may  begin  before  you 
get  back." 

"  Don't  think  of  me,  father,"  said  Clarence,  cheer- 
fully. "When  I  once  made  up  my  mind  to  leave 
college,  and  renounce  my  literary  ambitions  for  busi- 
ness, I  accepted  the  whole  situation  cheerfully.  All 
I  ask  now  is  that  you  will  trust  me  fully." 


io6  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

"  Why,  certainly,  my  son,  I  do.  Did  I  seem  not  to 
do  so  ? " 

"  You  did,  father ;  but  now  as  regards  my  travels. 
I  understand  that  I  must  be  spry  about  business 
in  Shanghai  and  Tientsin,  and  I  shall  be.  But 
I  imagine  that  you  will  not  need  me  in  Yokohama 
for  at  least  two  or  three,  possibly  four,  months 
yet?" 

"You  are  correct,  Clarence.  I  see  you  want  to 
take  in  Korea.  All  right.  Do  so  if  you  can,  but 
there  are  two  dorits  in  the  matter." 

"  What,  father  ?  " 

"  Don't  take  too  great  risks,  and  don't  bring  me 
into  debt." 

Clarence  laughed,  and  just  then  the  call  "All 
ashore  "  sounded.  So,  'mid  the  bustle  of  departing 
landsfolk  and  the  abundant  "  Good-bys  "  and  "  God 
bless  yous,"  Mr.  Burnham  made  his  way  to  the 
wharf. 

The  cabin  was  full  of  ladies  and  gentlemen,  while 
the  steerage  was  crowded  with  Chinese  passengers, 
who,  fearing  that  war  would  soon  force  them  to  leave 
Japan  hastily,  thought  it  best  to  go  at  once.  They 
believed  they  did  well  in  taking  Father  Time  by  the 
foremost  hair  of  his  forelock. 

Several  of  the  thousand  tongues  of  Dame  Rumor 
were  busy.  One  declared  that  a  Chinese  battleship 
had  sunk  three  Japanese  men-of-war.  Another 


AS  A   SHUTTLE,   TO   AND   FRO.  107 

hinted  that  there  was  a  man  on  board,  a  Yankee,  who 
had  some  wonderful  scheme  for  blowing  up  a  whole 
fleet  in  a  moment.  It  was  to  be  very  easily  clone  by 
a  secret  compound,  to  be  made  effective  in  half-sub- 
merged bottles.  For  a  small  fortune  he  was  willing 
to  sell  his  secret,  or,  for  a  proper  consideration,  even 
to  attempt  its  execution  in  person. 

In  the  smoking  room,  Clarence  heard  some  won- 
derful stories.  Fortunately,  however,  he  was  fairly 
familiar  with  that  "  higher  criticism,"  which  he  had 
noticed  so  scared  nervous  old  ladies  and  gentlemen 
in  and  out  of  the  churches  in  the  United  States. 
This  now  stood  him  in  good  stead.  He  was  soon 
able  to  see,  in  spite  of  the  thick  tobacco  smoke  in 
the  saloon,  that  nervousness  and  fear,  and  the  pro- 
pensity in  the  average  human  being  to  gull  and  be 
gulled,  was  the  basis  of  some  of  the  tall  edifices  of 
fancy  then  erected  in  the  air. 

In  truth,  no  one  knew  anything  about  facts  and 
certainties,  though  the  signs  of  war  were  threatening. 
Not  a  few  of  the  pessimists  agreed  that  the  race 
would  surely  be  to  the  swift,  and  the  battle  to  the 
strong,  or,  in  other  words,  that  Japan  was  going  to 
the  dogs  and  would  be  "  smashed  "  by  China.  At  the 
beginning,  the  smaller  country  might  strike  quickly 
and  hard,  but  in  the  long  run,  if  war  continued, 
China's  superior  resources  would  tell,  and  Japan 
would  be  ruined. 


io8  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

Most  of  the  talkers  were  dwellers  in  the  ports, 
though  of  but  a  few  years'  residence  in  the  East. 
Nearly  all  labored  under  the  very  common  but  very 
mistaken  notion  that  the  Chinese  were,  in  our  use  of 
the  term,  a  nation  as  well  as  a  race,  and  had  a  gov- 
ernment in  the  sense  that  Germany  or  the  United 
States  has  a  government. 

"  You're  all  mistaken,  gentlemen,"  growled  a  gray- 
beard,  as  he  shook  out  the  ashes  of  his  pipe  into  the 
cuspidore.  "  If  war  comes,  it  will  be  a  fight  between 
a  brainy  athlete  and  a  stupid  giant,  and  all  about  a 
pygmy  too.  Japan  is  the  athlete,  China  the  giant,  and 
Korea  the  pygmy.  The  one  brainy,  young,  and  strong, 
has  resources  enough  besides  knowing  just  what  to  do. 
That's  Japan.  China,  besides  being  very  old  and  as 
little  organized  politically  as  a  jellyfish,  will,  pretty 
soon,  not  know  what  to  do.  Only  a  few  coast 
provinces  of  China  will  fight.  The  others  will  look 
on  while  Russia  steps  in.  Whichever  way  it  may  go, 
the  Bear  sees  his  way  to  a  good  meal." 

Off  went  the  unpopular  prophet  to  bed,  and  others, 
including  Clarence  Burnham,  soon  followed. 

In  depressing  contrast  to  the  landscape  of  Japan, 
our  young  traveller  found  the  coast  of  China  low, 
yellow,  and  uninviting.  He  was  hardly  prepared  for 
what  he  saw,  for  he  had  heard  this  seacoast  province 
of  Kiang-su  spoken  of  as  the  Garden  of  China.  This 
is  a  vast  alluvial  plain  created  by  the  slow  processes 


AS  A   SHUTTLE,   TO   AND   FRO.  109 

of  nature.  Just  as  Holland  is  a  deposit  of  mud  and 
sand  tumbled  down  from  the  highlands  of  France  and 
Germany  by  the  Maas  and  Rhine,  so  Kiang-su,  over 
three  times  -the  size  of  the  Netherlands,  is  the  creation 
of  the  Yang-tse  River. 

After  passing  the  expanse  of  yellow-brown  mud, 
the  outlook  became  more  encouraging.  Anchoring 
off  the  Wusung  bar,  the  steamer  prepared  to  send 
the  bags  of  mail  and  the  passengers  up  to  the  city  of 
Shanghai  by  a  tender. 

"What  are  all  those  British  warships  which  we 
saw  lying  off  the  mouth  of  the  Yang-tse  ?  "  asked 
Clarence  of  his  elderly  friend,  the  prophet  of  the 
smoking  room  the  night  before. 

"  Don't  you  know,  my  boy,  that  the  British  lion 
doesn't  propose  to  lose  anything  by  a  war  in  the 
East?  England  will  declare  Shanghai  outside  the 
sphere  of  military  operations.  British  trade  inter- 
ests must  not  suffer ;  for  with  an  Englishman  trade  is 
first,  and  God  next,  and  fair  play  to  either  Japan  or 
China  comes  just  when,  and  only  how  and  when,  it 
suits  John  Bull's  pocket-book." 

Clarence  looked  at  the  grizzled  face  of  "  the 
prophet "  and  wondered  if  he  were  the  reputed  Yan- 
kee fleet-destroyer.  He  finally  concluded  he  was  a 
New  Yorker  of  Irish  extraction. 

The  elderly  man  pointed  out  the  route  of  the  first 
railway  in  China  built  in  1876  from  Wusung  to 


no  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

Shanghai,  which,  from  the  very  first,  the  "  literary 
fellers  "  of  China  had  opposed,  because  it  was  for- 
eign. Hated  by  the  lovers  of  superstition  and 
learned  ignorance,  who  are  as  owls  and  bats  to  any- 
thing savoring  of  Christianity,  progress,  and  western- 
ism,  the  railway,  though  popular,  was  doomed. 
These  literary  Confucianists  first  got  up  an  accident, 
and  then  a  riot.  By  government  order,  the  ties  and 
rails  were  torn  up,  and  the  rolling  stock  sent  to 
Formosa.  Not  even  a  "streak  of  rust"  remained  in 
this  year,  1894  A.D.,  to  tell  the  tale. 

Passing  the  forest  of  vessels  at  anchor,  the  mills, 
factories,  and  shipyards,  Clarence  was  soon  in  the 
heart  of  Shanghai. 

He  gave  a  day  or  two  to  seeing  the  pretty  "  foreign 
concessions  "  and  "  settlements,"  the  chief  "  hongs  " 
and  "consulates,"  American,  English,  French,  Jap- 
anese, and  German.  These  were  shining,  bright  and 
clean,  while  inside  the  great  walled  city  of  natives 
seemed  to  lie  the  kingdom  of  nastiness.  The  nar- 
rowness and  filth  of  the  streets,  the  stench  of  the 
drains,  the  odors  of  opium,  oil,  and  burning  joss- 
sticks  assaulted  his  nose,  and  he  was  glad  to  beat  a 
retreat.  In  the  evening,  when  the  electric  lights 
made  second  day  in  the  foreign  city,  wherein  lodge, 
besides  five  thousand  Europeans  and  Americans, 
over  two  hundred  thousand  Chinese,  he  was  not  im- 
pressed with  the  morals  of  the  "model  settlement." 


AS   A   SHUTTLE,   TO   AND  FRO.  in 

What  with  native  and  imported  wickedness,  the  place 
seemed  to  be  one  more  in  the  list  of  at  least  a  hundred 
others,  each  named  "  the  wickedest  place  on  earth." 

On  the  second  day  he  called  at  the  hong  of  a  well- 
known  firm  and  arranged  his  father's  business  mat- 
ters. As  the  work  required  but  one  or  two  hours  of 
the  morning,  he  was  free  to  accept  an  invitation  from 
Mr.  Gordon,  one  of  the  firm,  to  ride  out  in  the  after- 
noon and  dine  at  the  club  at  six  o'clock. 

Everywhere  the  talk  was  upon  the  coming  war. 
Everybody  seemed  to  feel  cock-sure  that  China  would 
quickly  drive  the  Japanese  out  of  Korea,  sink  the 
Mikado's  fleet,  and  then  seize  Yokohama  and  bom- 
bard Tokio,  unless  the  Japanese  should,  before  this 
dire  eventuality,  sue  for  peace  and  pay  indemnity. 

The  ride  took  them  in  and  out  of  all  the  foreign 
quarters  and  past  pretty  much  everything  to  be  seen, 
besides  along  the  Bubbling  Well  Road.  Yet  what 
interested  Clarence  Burnham  most  of  all  was  a  Brit- 
ish steamer  that  had  just  come  in  from  another 
Chinese  port.  It  was,  as  Clarence  roughly  estimated, 
of  about  two  thousand  tons  burthen,  and  might  re- 
quire a  crew  of  sixty  men. 

11 1  am  interested  in  that  ship,"  said  Mr.  Gordon, 
"  for  it  is  to  carry  Chinese  troops  to  Korea.  It  will 
easily  hold  a  full  regiment." 

"  Do  the  Chinese  own  it  ?  " 

"  No ;  it  belongs  to  a  steamship  company  in  Lon- 


ii2  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

don,  which  carries  on  trade  with  China  and  India. 
The  Chinese  government  has  chartered  it.  The  man- 
darins put  down  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  in 
bank  to-day,  to  cover  the  cost  of  possible  loss  or 
injury  under  the  charter,  apart  from  the  price  of  the 
vessel." 

"  Supposing  war  should  break  out  ?  " 

"  In  that  case  the  steamer  would  belong  to  the 
Chinese,  and  the  European  officers  would  leave  it. 
But  no  war  is  likely  to  break  out  very  soon.  Of 
course  the  Japanese  will  back  down  when  they  find 
ten  thousand  of  the  best  Chinese  troops  already  on 
the  ground." 

"  What !     Ten  thousand  ?     Are  they  there  now  ? " 

"  No  ;  but  they  will  be  in  less  than  a  week.  Seven 
Chinese  and  three  British  steamers  are  already  busy 
at  Tientsin  in  transportation." 

"  How  I  should  like  to  see  Korea ! "  mused  Clar- 
ence, out  loud. 

"  Would  you  really  like  to  go  ? "  asked  Mr.  Gordon, 
in  pleased  surprise. 

"  Yes,  certainly ;  if  a  suitable  opportunity  is  of- 
fered." 

"  I  am  glad  to  know  this,  for  Captain  Halley,  the 
master,  who  was  at  my  office  this  morning  and  is  to 
dine  with  us  at  the  club  this  evening,  said  that  he 
wanted  a  young  man,  American  or  British,  as  clerk, 
who  could  talk  Japanese.  He  anticipates  no  trouble, 


AS  A   SHUTTLE,   TO   AND   FRO.  113 

6ut  in  the  event  of  meeting  a  Japanese  man-of- 
war,  or  of  leaving  his  ship  and  remaining  in  Korea 
and  opening  negotiations  with  merchants  and  Japan- 
ese shipping  men,  he  should  need  a  young  man  like 
yourself.  He  sails  to-morrow  at  noon  with  his  ship 
in  ballast  for  Tientsin." 

At  the  club  that  evening  Clarence  Burnham  was 
introduced  to  Captain  Halley,  and  was  charmed  with 
him.  The  shipmaster  broached  the  subject  of  going 
to  Korea  to  the  young  man,  offering  him  good  pay 
as  captain's  clerk  for  two  months,  or  until  they  came 
back  from  Korea.  If  Captain  Halley  remained  in 
that  country  for  business,  mutually  profitable  arrange- 
ments might  be  made,  provided  Mr.  Burnham  in 
Japan  could  spare  his  son.  Clarence's  decision  must 
be  made  at  once. 

The  spirit  of  adventure  was  strong.  Clarence 
Burnham  accepted.  Next  morning,  after  writing  a 
long  letter  to  his  father,  explaining  everything,  he 
was  on  deck  at  n  A.M.  At  noon  the  anchor  was 
weighed,  and  within  thirty  hours  dropped  again  at 
Tientsin.  The  low-lying  Taku  forts,  looking  like 
a  line  of  huge  boxes,  had  been  passed  at  the  mouth 
of  the  dirty,  muddy,  tortuous  Peiho  River. 

Clarence  Burnham  was  excited  at  the  idea  of 
being  within  eighty  miles  of  the  maiden  whose  face 
was  as  a  photograph  on  his  heart.  Yet  he  wrote  no 
letter,  for  he  had  promised  to  keep  silence  with  lip 


ii4  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

and  pen  for  a  half  decade  of  years.  He  would 
gladly  have  gone  ashore  and  spent  a  day  or  two  in 
seeing  the  famous  city,  named  the  Ford  of  Heaven. 
As  it  was,  he  had  but  a  few  hours,  which  he  made 
the  most  of  in  a  jin-riki-sha  ride.  There  was  the 
walled  city  with  massive  gates,  and  beside  it  the 
larger  Chinese  unwalled  city  and  the  foreign  settle- 
ment, all  enclosed,  besides  much  land  given  to  farms 
and  graves  within  a  mud  wall.  For  the  first  time, 
seeing  so  large  a  portion  of  the  soil  taken  up  by  bur- 
ial places  to  the  detriment  of  the  living,  he  realized 
how  true  it  was  that  "  China  is  a  country  ruled  from 
the  graveyard." 

With  the  Taku  forts,  Tientsin  formed  the  guard- 
gate  to  Peking.  Nothing  was  now  thought  of  on 
shore  or  on  deck  but  the  despatch  of  soldiers  to 
Korea.  Besides  the  usual  craft  moored  in  the 
stream,  including  the  inevitable  British  gunboat,  was 
the  fleet  of  eight  transports  gay  with  flags,  making 
a  striking  sight.  The  Chinese  dragon  on  triangular 
yellow  bunting  seemed  especially  ready  and  rampant. 
For  two  days  Clarence  was  busy  during  every  mo- 
ment, while  the  ship  was  being  watered  and  provi- 
sioned, and  made  ready  by  the  carpenters  for  the 
accommodation  of  eleven  hundred  men  and  a  twelve- 
gun  park  of  field-artillery. 

All  being  ready  except  the  living  cargo,  the  fleet 
dropped  down  the  river.  The  peach  and  apple  bios- 


AS  A   SHUTTLE,   TO  AND   FRO.  115 

soms  in  the  thousands  of  orchards,  that  once  in  the 
the  year,  for  a  few  days,  glorify  this  flat  plain,  had 
fallen.  Yet  the  greenery  of  the  gardens  and  fruit 
trees  was  very  pleasing  to  the  eye.  The  channel 
went  winding  through  its  circuitous  mazes  that  make 
the  water  distance  from  Tientsin  to  the  Taku  forts 
at  the  river's  mouth  compare  with  the  length  of  the 
land  journey  as  sixty-seven  to  forty.  At  the  forts 
two  Chinese  men-of-war  lay  at  anchor,  waiting  to  act 
as  convoy.  The  drilled  troops,  for  these  were  the 
best  in  China's  army,  —  very  large  on  paper,  but  very 
small  in  the  number  of  trained  soldiers,  —  left  their 
camp  and  quickly  embarked. 

Gayly,  with  a  thousand  flags  fluttering  in  the  breeze, 
the  fleet  of  ten  steamers,  carrying  over  six  thousand 
Chinese  braves,  sailed  away.  Another  left  the  next 
day.  All  these  crossed  the  Yellow  Sea  to  their  des- 
tination, and  landed  their  forces  at  Asan  in  Korea,  a 
few  miles  southwest  of  the  Korean  capital. 

Captain  H alley's  vessel  was  not  ready  to  start 
until  the  next  day,  July  23.  Then  the  last  man, 
with  cartridges  and  equipment,  was  on  board,  the 
ammunition  and  field-guns  housed  and  stored.  There 
were  two  Chinese  generals.  With  water  ballast  to 
keep  the  ship  steady,  but  with  nothing  on  board  but 
soldiers  and  their  arms,  ammunition,  equipment,  and 
rations,  the  steamer  soon  left  the  low  shores  of  north- 
ern China  behind  her  and  sped  to  her  fate. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

ON    BOARD   A   JAPANESE    MAN-OF-WAR. 

AT  San  Francisco,  Jozuna  was  so  fortunate  as 
to  meet  a  high  officer  in  the  Mikado's  govern- 
ment, just  returning  from  diplomatic  business 
in  Europe.     In  former  feudal  days,  when  the  ties  of 
clanship  were  so  strong,  this  gentleman  had  been  the 
friend  of  his  father.    Jozuna  told  him  his  whole  story, 
and  proved  to  him  his  innocence  of  the  charges  and 
suspicions  against  him. 

Fortunately  this  gentleman  was  a  near  friend  of 
the  captain  of  the  Japanese  man-of-war  Naniwa, 
which  was  then  lying  in  the  harbor.  The  comple- 
ment of  the  warship  was  short,  and  the  petty  officer 
in  charge  of  the  most  important  branch  of  the  noc- 
turnal powers  of  the  ship,  the  searchlights,  was  then 
lying  sick  in  a  San  Francisco  hospital.  Jozuna's 
friend  made  known  the  young  man's  especial  abili- 
ties as  an  electrician  and  mechanical  engineer,  of 
which  the  captain  was  delighted  to  hear.  The  up- 
shot of  the  matter  was  that  Jozuna  was  appointed  to 
a  position  which  put  him  in  charge  of  the  special 

116 


ON   BOARD   A  JAPANESE   MAN-OF-WAR.     117 

night  lights,  so  necessary  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the 
Chinese  were  well  provided  with  torpedo-boats. 

Owing  to  his  thorough  acquaintance  with  delicate 
machinery  and  all  electric  work  requiring  nicety,  both 
in  apprehension  and  in  practice,  Jozuna  soon  was  not 
only  master  of  his  particular  business  on  the  ship, 
but  was  a  great  favorite  among  the  officers  of  his 
rank  and  grade. 

It  is  a  strong  tradition  among  the  Japanese  naval 
officers  that  politics  should  have  no  place  in  forming 
an  estimate  of  their  duties  or  of  the  character  of  a 
fellow-officer.  Indeed,  on  the  Naniwa  there  were 
at  least  five  in  the  line  and  two  in  the  staff  among 
the  commissioned  officers,  and  nine  of  the  crew,  whose 
fathers  or  relatives  had  been  adherents  of  the  old 
Tycoon,  and  in  arms  against  the  Mikado  in  the  old 
days  before  '68.  Some  of  the  crew  had  even  been 
concerned  in  "  the  great  rebellion  in  the  southwest," 
or  "the  Satsuma  rebellion,"  as  it  is  more  commonly 
termed. 

Yet  all  this  was  as  very  ancient  history,  seeming 
to  the  Japanese,  who  lives  fast  in  this  era,  as  far  back 
as  are  the  days  of  the  battles  of  Scot  and  Southron, 
of  Bruce  and  Edward,  and  vastly  further  back  in 
their  imagination  than  the  days  of  Confederate  and 
Federal,  of  gray  and  blue  are  in  ours. 

When  the  war  cloud,  no  bigger  than  the  Korean 
Kim's  hand,  rose  over  the  Yellow  Sea,  the  Naniwa 


n8  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

was  looked  to  as  one  of  the  vessels  which,  from  her 
swiftness,  gun  power,  and  ease  of  evolution,  would 
in  all  probability  be  one  of  the  first  in  active  service. 
Shortly  after  her  arrival  at  Sasebo,  the  great  navy- 
yard  not  very  far  from  Nagasaki,  her  complement 
was  filled.  Many  more  Japanese  officers  on  shore 
leave  or  other  duties  had  sought  eagerly  for  the 
honor  of  being  on  this  superb  vessel. 

Her  armament  consisted  of  two  twenty-eight  tons 
Armstrong,  six  fifteen-centimetre  Krupp  cannon,  and 
twelve  quick-firing  and  machine  guns,  and  her  men 
were  all  in  splendid  discipline.  If  one  judged  by  the 
spirit  in  her  officers  and  crew,  the  Naniwa,  as  she 
lay  in  the  harbor  of  Sasebo,  tied  to  her  anchors,  was 
rather  like  a  war-horse,  impatiently  champing  the  bit 
held  by  a  firm  hand,  than  any  inanimate  thing. 

Late  in  July,  when  the  smart  young  Japanese 
officers  at  Shanghai  and  Tientsin  telegraphed  to  the 
naval  department  in  Tokio  that  the  Chinese  trans- 
ports had  sailed,  the  message  within  half  an  hour 
of  its  receipt  was  received  also  at  Sasebo,  but  with 
orders  to  the  fleet  to  sail.  In  ten  minutes  the  joyful 
news  went  round  the  deck  of  eight  of  the  warships 
of  the  Mikado's  navy. 

"  At  last  Time's  horse  has  galloped  to  my  door  and 
bidden  me  mount.  Into  the  saddle  I  leap,  and  then, 
O  steed,  ride  on ! "  said  Jozuna  to  himself. 

Opportunity  had   come   in   through   the   political 


ON   BOARD   A  JAPANESE   MAN-OF-WAR.     119 

situation.  Between  the  athlete  Japan  and  the  giant 
China  lay  the  pygmy  state  of  Korea.  In  its  unfixed 
political  status,  the  very  weakness  of  this  uncertain 
country  was  a  constant  menace  to  the  peace  of  the 
East.  An  insurrection  broke  out  in  a  central  prov- 
ince, which  the  feeble  government  at  Seoul  was 
powerless  to  suppress.  The  pro-Chinese  party  of 
Korean  nobles  sent  to  Peking  asking  aid  of  the 
Emperor  of  the  country  which  proudly  calls  itself 
the  Middle  Kingdom,  that  is,  central  in  the  earth, 
with  vassal  nations  all  around.  At  once  the  Queen 
Dowager,  real  ruler  of  China,  gave  the  order  for  the 
despatch  of  a  military  force  to  put  down  the  revolt, 
China  thus  acting  as  suzerain  of  a  tributary  state. 

Japan's  jealousy  was  roused.  She  protested 
against  the  sending  of  Li  Hung  Chang's  drilled 
troops  into  Korea  as  the  violation  of  treaty.  When, 
lured  from  his  safe  retreat  in  Tokio  by  a  false  tele- 
gram and  bank  drift,  Kim,  the  Korean  political 
refugee,  was  assassinated  in  Shanghai,  and  the 
Chinese  government  made  indecent  haste  to  send  his 
body  to  Seoul  to  be  dismembered  and  exposed  as 
public  carrion,  popular  wrath  in  Japan  burned  like 
the  volcano  fires  of  Asama.  Thus  both  the  Japanese 
people  and  the  government .  were  one  in  sentiment. 
Pending  the  negotiations,  any  further  despatch  of 
troops  to  Korea  was  declared  to  China,  by  the  states- 
men of  Tokio,  to  be  an  act  of  war. 


120  IN  THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

China's  answer  was  one  of  insult  and  defiance 
She  held  Korea  to  be  a  subject  state,  flaunted  her 
claim  of  the  right  to  despatch  more  soldiers,  and  did  so. 

This  is  why  three  of  the  fastest  Japanese  cruisers, 
the  Akitsushima,  Yoshino,  and  the  Naniwa,  were  to 
steam  ahead  at  full  speed,  and  intercept  the  trans- 
ports. Five  others  were  to  follow  immediately. 
Every  one  of  the  eight  Japanese  names  of  ships  was 
as  poetic,  as  classic,  as  suggestive,  and  as  calculated 
to  inspire  patriotism  in  a  Japanese  as  is  the  name 
of  the  Constitution,  the  Alliance,  the  Kearsarge,  or 
the  Brooklyn  with  us.  The  admiral  had  his  flag 
hoisted  on  the  Yoshino,  and,  of  course,  by  all  the 
rules  of  courtesy  on  the  seas,  any  war  vessel  of  any 
nation  would,  on  seeing  it,  salute  it  with  the  usual 
number  of  guns. 

With  lusty  cheers  and  singing,  the  little  brown  men 
on  deck  hoisted  the  anchors  by  steam,  and  out  the  gal- 
lant fleet  sailed  to  the  west.  Quickly  traversing  the 
Korean  Archipelago,  they  moved  up  northward  into 
the  Yellow  Sea  and  took  up  a  position  in  a  line  west- 
ward from  Asan  in  Korea,  south  of  the  capital.  At 
once  they  began  to  cruise  up  and  down,  from  north 
to  south,  so  as  to  be  sure  not  to  miss  the  coming 
prize.  It  reminded  Jozuna  of  what  he  had  read  of 
Piet  Heyn,  the  Dutch  admiral,  waiting  for  the  Span- 
ish "plate  fleet"  loaded  with  silver  from  South 
America. 


ON   BOARD   A  JAPANESE   MAN-OF-WAR.     121 

It  was  about  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  on  the 
25th  of  July,  when  near  Phung  Island  the  lookout 
on  the  Naniwa  caught  sight  of  two  ships.  These 
he  made  out  to  be  Chinese  men-of-war,  which  were 
apparently  coming  from  the  neighborhood  of  Asan. 
The  captain  of  the  Naniwa  supposed  that  the  fleet 
of  transports  had  arrived  with  their  freight  of  soldiers. 
This  the  Chinese  certainly  knew,  while  the  Japanese 
supposed  it;  but  the  Chinese  also  knew  that  on  the 
day  before  the  Japanese  troops  in  Seoul  had  attacked 
the  king's  palace,  in  order  to  drive  out  the  pro-Chinese 
faction  and  to  compel  reforms,  and  that  the  news  was 
in  Asan  by  half -past  five  in  the  afternoon  of  the  24th. 
The  Japanese,  being  at  sea  two  days,  did  not  know  just 
what  had  gone  on  in  Korea,  but  their  orders  were  strict 
to  stop  all  Chinese  vessels  coming  to  Korea.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Chinese  knew  that  the  war  was  on. 

In  this  respect,  the  Chinese  were  in  possession  of 
the  same  advantage  which,  in  1812,  our  commodore 
John  Rodgers  had  when  in  command  of  the  frigate 
President  he  opened  fire  on  the  British  ship  Belvidera, 
whose  captain  did  not  know  that  war  had  been  declared 
by  Congress. 

So  it  came  to  pass  that  in  July,  1894,  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  strife  which  secured  Korean  independence, 
the  Japanese  were  as  much  surprised  as  was  the  Brit- 
ish captain  seventy-two  years  before;  and  no  doubt, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  Chinese  commander  expected, 


122  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

like  Rodgers,  to  capture  his  prize,  but,  like  him,  was 
doomed  to  disappointment,  as  we  shall  see. 

The  Japanese  officers  did  not  know  what  to 
make  of  it  when  they  saw  the  Chinese  warships 
approaching  so  near,  yet  firing  no  salute  to  their 
admiral's  flag. 

"  What  does  that  mean  ?  "  said  one  officer  to  another, 
as  with  their  glasses  they  surveyed  the  on-coming 
Chinese  man-of-war,  and  actually  saw  the  guns  run 
out. 

"  It's  a  mystery,  and  things  look  suspicious.  Why, 
really  they  seem  to  be  cleared  for  action." 

The  next  appeal  was  to  the  ear.  They  heard  the 
gongs  beating  to  quarters. 

"  They  are  all  ready  to  fire,  sir,"  said  the  quarter- 
master, who,  with  his  long  glass,  could  see  the  men 
in  their  places  at  the  guns. 

The  drum  beat  to  quarters  now  rang  out  clear  on 
all  the  three  ships  flying  the  sun  banner  of  Japan. 
All  were  ordered  to  be  ready  for  instant  action,  special 
care  being  taken  that  no  nervous  hand  should  let  a 
shot  fly  until  the  right  moment,  if  at  all. 

There  was  rather  a  narrow  channel  between  the 
two  islands  of  Phung  and  Shapain,  and  it  required 
careful  navigation  to  keep  from  getting  aground. 
Feeling  sure  that  a  battle  was  imminent,  the  Japanese 
struck  out  on  the  southwest  course,  in  order  to  get 
into  the  open  sea.  Without  notice,  the  Tsi-Yuen, 


ON  BOARD   A  JAPANESE   MAN-OF-WAR.     123 

the  nearest  Chinese  ship,  opened  fire.  The  shot 
struck  in  the  forward  part  of  the  ship,  knocking  some 
splinters  of  steel  off  the  gunwale,  just  where  it  curved 
toward  the  prow,  but  doing  no  serious  damage. 

That  shot  opened  naval  war  between  Japan  and 
China.  The  athlete  and  the  giant  had  joined  com- 
bat. It  was  soon  to  be  a  case  of  pit  and  pick-axe. 

It  is  evident  that  the  Chinese  had  mistaken  the 
motives  of  the  Japanese,  who  had  quietly  ignored 
the  lack  of  naval  etiquette  in  not  saluting  their 
admiral's  flag,  and  moved  off  and  away  from  such 
impolite  people.  Then  the  Chinese  commander, 
flushed  with  that  conceit,  which  it  will  require  centu- 
ries to  eradicate  from  the  national  mind,  immediately 
leaped  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Japanese  were  run- 
ning away ;  whereas,  in  reality,  they  were  only  get- 
ting out  of  the  very  narrow  channel  in  which  steaming 
straight  ahead  was  very  difficult. 

So  there  was  nothing  to  do  but  to  begin  war.  It 
was  with  the  Japanese,  as  Parker  stated  the  situation 
at  Lexington,  in  1775:  "Men,  stand  your  ground. 
Don't  fire  until  you  are  fired  upon ;  but  if  they  want 
a  war,  let  it  begin  here." 

Now  in  the  Chinese  account  of  the  battle,  pub- 
lished later,  which  showed  how  well  Dr.  Clinton 
understood  his  Chinese  neighbors,  it  is  said  that  the 
Japanese  fired  first.  Then  the  Tsi-  Yuen  opened  all 
her  guns  in  broadside.  Within  a  quarter  of  an  hour 


i24  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

she  had  so  riddled  the  first  Japanese  man-of-war  that 
the  captain  hoisted  the  white  flag.  The  Japanese 
admiral  had  been  already  killed,  because  one  big 
shell  directed  at  the  Yoshino  had  knocked  to  pieces 
the  bridge  and  sent  the  high  officer  flying  in  the  air. 
There,  very  high  up  in  the  gayly  colored  but  imagi- 
nary pictures  of  the  conflict,  he  was  seen  turning  a 
somersault,  and  before  he  had  reached  the  water  he 
had  turned  several  more. 

Alas,  for  China's  lack  of  "truth  in  the  inward 
parts  "  !  The  fact  is  that  the  Chinese  captain  was  a 
brave  fellow  and  engaged  his  two  ships  against  over- 
whelming odds.  As  a  loyal  officer  under  orders  to 
protect  his  convoy,  no  matter  what  it  might  cost  him, 
he  dashed  into  the  Japanese  squadron,  hoping  to  dis- 
able the  ships,  drive  them  back,  or,  at  least,  by  keep- 
ing up  a  running  fight,  to  get  them  away  from  the 
Korean  coast. 

In  such  an  event  the  transports  would  be  safe 
and  the  soldiers  be  landed  without  molestation. 
Brave  even  to  rashness,  he  did  his  best,  and  later 
fought  in  the  big  fight  between  the  fleets  off  the  Yalu 
in  September.  Then  he  was  rewarded  by  having  his 
head  cut  off  some  weeks  later. 

Perhaps  he  did  not  know  that  either  one  of  the 
Japanese  men-of-war,  the  Yoshino  or  Naniwa,  with 
their  splendid  equipment  and  discipline,  was  a  match 
for  his  two  ships.  Bravely  he  continued  to  fight  for 
an  hour  and  a  half. 


ON   BOARD   A  JAPANESE   MAN-OF-WAR.     125 

Let  us  now  look  on  the  Japanese  deck  and  see  how 
his  first  battle  looked  to  Jozuna.  Fortunately,  unlike 
the  men  in  the  engine-room,  and  before  the  boiler 
fires,  he  could  see  or  hear  much  of  what  was  going 
on. 

First  of  all,  taking  care  that  everything  pertaining 
to  his  apparatus  was  safely  stowed  away  between 
decks,  an  operation,  or  rather  inspection,  that  con- 
sumed several  minutes,  Jozuna  was  then  positively 
startled  by  the  silence  of  every  one,  and  the  almost 
oppressive  orderliness  of  everything  on  board.  The 
men  gathered  in  the  casemates  and  about  the  guns, 
on  the  upper  deck,  at  the  quick-firers,  and  in  the  crow's 
nest.  They  waited  as  if  they  had  been  used  to  such 
exercise,  and  patient  waiting  while  doing  nothing,  all 
their  lives.  Only  three  or  four  moved  about.  They 
were  throwing  wet  sand  over  the  decks,  and  this  he 
knew  meant  that  blood  might  soon  flow  and  make 
the  decks  dangerously  slippery.  At  each  hatch  the 
hoisting  gear  was  in  activity  and  ammunition  made 
ready.  The  surgeons  and  their  assistants  were  al- 
ready prepared  with  all  their  terrible  steel  tools, 
which,  cold  and  glittering,  seemed  then  far  more 
fearsome  than  any  unseen  possibilities  of  shot  and 
shell  from  the  Chinese  ships. 

Jozuna  thought  he  had  never  before  seen  the  pol- 
ished cannon  look  so  beautiful.  It  reminded  him  of 
the  glistening  of  the  scales  on  venomous  serpents, 


126  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

and  the  coldness  of  the  metal,  soon  to  be  hot  enough, 
of  the  dull,  lidless  eye  that  sparkles  when  fangs  dart. 

Jozuna's  part  by  day  was  to  act  as  aid  to  carry  any 
extra  orders  of  the  captain  to  any  part  of  the  ship. 
It  was  just  when  in  a  moment's  revery  over  the  like- 
ness, in  nature  and  in  old  names,  of  the  cannon  and 
the  serpents,  that  the  sharp  report  of  the  heavy  Chi- 
nese rifle  made  war's  terrible  music.  Masses  of 
white  smoke  seemed  to  blossom  out  on  all  sides  of 
the  mouth  of  the  long  tube,  blooming  for  a  second 
or  two  in  the  summer  air,  like  mighty  peony  flowers 
of  white  interlaced  with  red. 

In  his  excited  condition,  the  time  was  vastly  longer 
than  the  chronometer  measured.  It  seemed  that  the 
time  from  the  first  flaming  out  from  the  muzzle,  until 
the  slight  jar  to  the  ship  from  the  concussion  of  the 
steel  shot,  which  struck  her  side  near  the  bow,  was 
almost  half  a  minute,  though  in  reality  but  scarcely 
two  seconds. 

Another  surprise  awaited  Jozuna,  who,  though  he 
knew  his  own  countrymen  so  well,  was  hardly  pre- 
pared to  find  them  so  cool  and  calculating,  when 
handling  the  mighty  engines  of  modern  warfare 
which  had  been  constructed  in  the  West.  The  orders 
of  the  Japanese  captain,  as  passed  to  every  gun  offi- 
cer, whether  of  the  heavy  rifles  or  the  repeating  and 
machine  artillery  of  smaller  calibre,  were  to  fire  and 
to  keep  firing,  but  in  every  case  to  take  aim. 


ON   BOARD   A  JAPANESE   MAN-OF-WAR.     127 

Then  for  several  minutes  there  rained  a  tempest  of 
iron,  and  yet  not  for  some  seconds  after  the  order 
had  been  given  did  the  two  heavy  guns  thunder,  for 
the  range  finders  were  proudly  deliberate.  They 
knew  their  game  and  their  own  power,  and  the  waters 
were  smooth.  When  once  they  opened  fire,  the  ten- 
inch  projectiles  were  not  wasted.  Shot  after  shot 
struck  the  hull  of  the  Tsi-Yuen,  and  pretty  soon  she 
began  to  look  like  an  old  colander  at  a  rummage  sale. 
The  rapid-firing  guns  swept  the  Chinese  deck  with  a 
hail  of  smaller  shot.  In  one  of  the  intervals,  with  his 
glass,  Jozuna  could  actually  see  rills  of  blood  pouring 
out  one  of  the  scuppers. 

By  and  by  something  like  a  lull  came,  when  the 
Tsi-Yuen  seemed  to  be  getting  into  a  position  to  give 
her  an  advantage  over  the  Yoshino.  This  gave  the 
gun  captains  on  the  Naniwa  the  opportunity  to  train 
their  twenty-eight-ton  Armstrong  guns,  so  as  to  strike 
their  foe,  if  possible,  at  the  water  line,  and  blow  her 
up. 

Meanwhile  the  Yoshino  discharged  a  torpedo  out 
of  her  forward  tube.  Out  like  a  flying  fish  flew  this 
new  creation  of  man.  With  its  pointed  snout  and  its 
twisting  tail  hissing  and  gurgling  through  the  waters, 
it  seemed  to  seek  viciously  its  prey.  Had  it  struck, 
the  Tsi-  Yiien  might  have  gone  to  the  bottom. 

It  missed. 

Jozuna,  as  he  saw  it  curl  round  the  stern  of  the 


128  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

Chinese  vessel,  thought  he  heard  a  cheer  raised  from 
the  Chinese  deck,  but  a  great  cloud  of  white  smoke 
blew  in  his  face,  and  he  could  not  for  the  moment  see 
anything,  for  the  Naniwa's  big  guns  had  again  spoken, 
and  never  were  shots  more  decisive. 

One  penetrated  the  Chinese  ship,  struck  immedi- 
ately under  her  bow  gun,  and  burst  there.  In  one 
moment  the  gun  was  knocked  over  and  twenty  men 
lay  dead  or  dying  on  the  deck,  most  of  them  killed 
within  a  very  short  distance  of  the  cannon,  though 
some,  who  were  far  distant  down  the  deck,  were  struck 
with  the  splinters  of  steel  and  wood,  and  three  were 
wounded  in  the  room  beneath.  The  other  shell  ripped 
up  the  deck  and  upset  two  guns,  the  fragments  of 
the  exploding  shell  battering  the  gun-carriage  out  of 
shape.  Those  who  saw  the  lucky  shots  from  the 
Naniwa  told  their  comrades,  but  there  was  no  cheer- 
ing. Nevertheless  all  who  could,  looked  over  to  the 
Tsi-  Yuen  and  saw  a  white  and  a  Japanese  flag  hoisted. 
Yet,  when  the  Yoshino  moved  over  to  the  Chinese 
ship  to  demand  her  surrender,  one  or  two  guns  again 
opened  against  the  Japanese,  and  the  Tsi-  Yuen  moved 
away,  steaming  toward  China.  The  Yoshino  pursued 
and  used  her  chasing  guns,  but  the  Chinese  vessel  got 
away,  and  reached  Wei-Hai-Wei  in  a  condition  truly 
pitiable. 

As  for  the  other  Chinese  ship,  the  Kitang-  Yi,  she 
was  perforated  in  many  places.  Badly  damaged  and, 


ON   BOARD   A  JAPANESE   MAN-OF-WAR.     129 

indeed,  crippled  by  the  shot  of  the  Akitsushima,  she 
speedily  left  the  fight  and  ran  away,  disappearing  in 
the  Korean  mud,  offshore,  where  her  men,  leaving 
her  in  their  boats,  got  safely  to  land  and  marched  to 
the  camp  at  Asan.  Whether  disabled  by  a  shot  in 
her  engine-room,  or  magazine,  or  why  only  one-third 
of  her  upper  deck  was  found  above  water  two  days 
later,  the  fire  having  eaten  away  what  the  explosion 
had  spared,  is  not  known. 

The  lookout  from  the  forward  military  mast  of  the 
Naniwa  reported  to  the  captain  that  the  Yoshino  was 
returning,  —  for  no  one  knew  but  that  the  whole  Chi- 
nese fleet  might  be  near, — and  that  two  other  steamers 
were  approaching  and  were  already  in  the  offing. 
He  soon  made  out  by  his  glass  that  one  was  a  small 
Chinese  war  vessel,  a  despatch-boat,  and  that  the  other 
was  a  transport  flying  the  British  flag.  Soon  the 
powerful  glass  of  the  man  in  the  crow's  nest  made 
out  that  there  were  large  numbers  of  Chinese  soldiers 
on  board  of  her. 

Jozuna  noticed  that  even  before  the  Chinese  war- 
ship came  within  close  range  of  the  Japanese  cannon, 
she  carried  a  white  flag  in  token  of  her  surrender.  A 
prize  crew  was  sent  on  board  from  the  Akitsushimat 
with  orders  to  follow  the  victor  ship. 

Matters  were  now  getting  to  be  of  an  exciting 
nature.  Jozuna  had  been  to  his  first  battle,  but  as 
no  one  on  his  ship,  nor  even  in  any  of  the  three  Jap- 


i3o  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

anese  war  vessels,  had  been  hurt,  it  did  not  seem  very 
different  from  the  ordinary  "general  quarters"  and 
gun  drill,  though  it  is  true  that  the  men  working  the 
heavy  cannon  had  thrown  off  all  their  clothing  except 
their  trousers,  and  that  some  of  the  Chinese  shells 
burst  near  enough  to  make  the  ears  tingle  and  heart 
beat  faster. 


CHAPTER    X. 

THE    SINKING   OF   THE   TRANSPORT. 

AS  the  big  transport  approached,  Jozuna  caught 
sight  of  the  flag  that  rose  and  fell  in  the  fit- 
ful morning  breeze.  It  was  that  of  Great 
Britain. 

What  might  happen  if  the  red  flag  of  the  crosses 
of  St.  George  and  St.  Andrew  was  fired  on  ?  Jozuna 
was  not  a  lawyer,  but  he  knew  there  was  one,  well 
acquainted  with  naval  and  international  law,  with  the 
rear-admiral  on  board  the  Yoshino.  He  was  not 
startled  when  signals  were  hoisted,  ordering  the  trans- 
port to  stop.  Nor  again  was  he  surprised  when  the 
engines  of  the  big  vessel  ceased  pulsing,  and  she  first 
drifted  quietly  in  the  water  and  then  came  to  a  stand- 
still. 

But  when  the  two  guns  of  the  Naniwa  were  fired, 
Jozuna  was  not  sailor  enough  to  know,  or  had  forgot- 
ten, that  these  were  only  "blind  "  or  blank  cartridges, 
ending  in  smoke,  and  merely  polite  invitations  to  cast 
anchor.  He  was  fearfully  excited  at  the  idea  of  his 
countrymen  doing  anything  to  excite  the  ire  of 


i32  IN  THE  MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

Englishmen,  or  that  might  lead  to  trouble  with  the 
British  government.  His  father  had  told  him  of 
Shimonoseki,  when,  in  1864,  the  batteries  of  proud 
Choshiu  had  been  crumbled  to  pieces  and  their  guns 
taken  to  the  military  museums  of  Europe. 

Furthermore,  one  of  the  vital  elements  of  success  in 
"Jack's  fight  with  the  giant  "  was  that  Japan  was  not 
to  be  hampered  in  her  wager  of  battle  with  China, 
but  should  have  fair  play.  It  was  therefore  with  a 
sense  of  relief  that  he  saw  the  anchor  of  the  trans- 
port splash  into  the  sea,  and  that  he  heard  it  make  a 
gurgling  as  it  sank  into  the  waters. 

The  captain  of  the  Naniwa  now  gave  orders  by 
signal  to  the  transport  to  follow  her  as  she  went  to 
rejoin  the  main  squadron.  To  make  sure  that  this 
order  was  in  force,  he  wrote  it  out  and  sent  it  by 
an  officer.  Jozuna  was  perfectly  delighted  when  the 
captain  told  him  to  join  the  lieutenant,  who,  with  a 
boat's  crew,  was  to  be  sent  to  the  transport. 

The  language  of  communication  at  sea,  when 
beyond  range  of  the  trumpet,  is  by  colored  flags  of 
various  sort,  the  colors  and  shapes  standing  for  letters 
or  words.  It  was  quarter  past  nine  in  the  morning 
when  the  Naniwa  signalled  by  two  flags,  J.  W.  ("  Stop 
immediately  ").  Then  came  the  two  blind  guns.  Next 
were  hoisted  the  two  little  signal  flags,  which  read 
L.P.  ("  Anchor  ").  The  captain  of  the  Naniwa  was, 
however,  as  eager  at  that  moment  to  capture  the  flying 


THE  JAPANESE  OFFICER'S  CAP  WAS  RAISED  TO  CAPTAIN  HALLEY. 


THE   SINKING   OF  THE  TRANSPORT.      133 

Chinese  warship,  still  in  sight,  as  to  catch  the  trans- 
port. 

So  when  Captain  H alley,  for  it  was  none  other,  saw 
the  Naniwa  in  motion,  he  raised  four  flags,  one  above 
another,  on  the  halyards,  which  read  D.N.W.R.,  and 
meant  "  May  I  go  forward  ? "  This  question  in  the  air 
was  immediately  answered  by  the  repetition  of  the 
Naniivrfs  first  signal. 

It  was  nearly  an  hour  and  a  half  from  the  first  tele- 
phone, or  telephan,  —  if  we  may  coin  the  word, — 
when  Jozuna  was  in  the  boat  with  the  lieutenant. 
Ten  white-jacketed  Japanese  sailors  quickly  rowed 
the  boat  over  to  the  obedient  ship.  Jozuna  followed 
the  lieutenant  up  the  gangway.  On  deck  the  Jap- 
anese officer's  cap  was  raised  to  Captain  Halley, 
behind  whom  stood  Clarence  Burnham,  and  at  some 
distance  appeared  the  commanding  figure  of  the 
German  engineer. 

As  the  two  comrades  looked  into  each  other's  eyes, 
there  broke  out  a  tremendous  storm  of  emotion  within, 
though  on  either  of  their  faces  there  was  scarcely  a 
sign  of  recognition.  By  living  long  among  the  sons 
of  Nippon,  the  American  youth  had  learned  the  les- 
son not  only  of  mastery  of  temper  and  patience  under 
hardships,  but  of  control  of  the  features,  so  that  no 
jealous  or  suspicious  Chinese  officer  suspected  for  a 
moment  that  these  two  youngsters  were  old  friends. 

On  going  to  the  cabin,  the  pair  of  friends  had  a 


134  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

chance  to  grasp  hands  and  to  chat  for  a  few  moments, 
hurriedly  explaining  to  each  other  the  how,  why,  and 
where,  while  the  Naniwds  lieutenant,  having  inspected 
the  vessel's  papers,  went  over  the  ship.  He  found  out 
at  once  her  character,  that  she  was  to  all  intents  and 
purposes,  though  British-owned,  a  Chinese  ship,  and 
loaded  with  what  was  contraband  of  war.  He  left 
hurriedly,  before  Captain  H alley  could  make  further 
explanations. 

It  was  after  the  lieutenant  had  returned  to  the 
Naniwa  that  the  signal  was  given  to  the  transport  to 
follow  after  the  man-of-war,  but  instead  of  the  engines 
being  started,  the  transport's  flags  were  run  up,  ask- 
ing for  a  boat  to  be  sent  again  for  communication. 

The  captain  of  the  Nanizva  divined  that  the  Chinese 
officers  were  hindering  Captain  H  alley  from  obeying 
his  orders,  and  his  guess  was  as  true  as  his  guns.  As 
soon  as  the  Chinese  warriors  realized  that  they  were 
to  be  taken  in  charge  by  the  Japanese,  they  refused 
to  let  the  ship  be  moved. 

So  again  the  captain  of  the  Naniwa  sent  his  lieu- 
tenant with  another  officer,  ordering  them  to  bring 
off  in  the  cutter  all  the  foreigners  or  Europeans  on 
board  the  transport.  Jozuna  was  fortunate  in  being 
again  ordered  along.  Stepping  from  the  boat  to  the 
gangway  ladder,  he  met  Captain  Halley,  who  came 
forward,  earnestly  warning  them  not  to  expose  their 
lives  by  coming  up  on  deck,  for  a  double  mutiny  had 


THE   SINKING   OF   THE   TRANSPORT.      135 

broken  out  on  board,  of  both  Chinese  officers  and 
men. 

He  told  the  Japanese  that  the  argument  of  the 
Chinese  officers  was  that  they  had  left  Taku  before 
war  was  declared.  The  Peking  government  had 
paid  a  large  price  for  the  ship  and  the  officers  for 
their  passage,  and  they  considered  they  had  a  right, 
before  a  declaration  of  war,  to  be  landed  either  at 
Asan  or  Taku,  and  they  wanted  Captain  Halley  to 
turn  back  to  China. 

Jozuna  could  see,  yes,  and  hear,  the  Chinese  sol- 
diers, who  were  fearfully  excited,  rushing  about  the 
deck  in  the  wildest  manner  and  looking  over  the  sides 
of  the  ship.  Some  of  them  had  arms  in  their  hands. 
Whispering  this  to  the  foremost  officers,  all  three  laid 
hands  on  their  swords,  and  the  German  engineer  on 
the  transport  joined  the  captain  in  warning  them  not 
to  board.  Jozuna  did  not  see  his  friend  Clarence  at 
this  visit,  for  he  was  under  arrest,  as  it  were,  with  a 
revolver  at  his  head. 

When  the  two  friends  met  again  —  on  the  Nani- 
wa's  deck  —  to  compare  notes,  this  was  the  story  of 
what  took  place  on  the  transport. 

"  You  know,  Jozuna,  that  the  lieutenant,  having 
ordered  the  captain  to  follow  the  Naniwa,  left  the 
ship  very  abruptly." 

"  Yes,  that's  true.  What  else  could  he  do,  when 
our  captain  was  anxious  to  pursue  and  capture  the 


136  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

Chinese  warship,  and  every  second  made  him  chafe, 
especially  as  he  expected  a  battleship  or  two  to 
heave  in  sight." 

"Well,  at  any  rate,"  said  Clarence,  "Captain 
Halley  cannot  speak  Chinese,  and  the  German  engi- 
neer was  the  only  one  on  board  who  could.  You 
know  the  Chinese  never  can  think  as  individuals, — 
they  always  get  excited  and  act  in  the  mass.  From 
the  moment  that  your  blank  shots  were  fired,  the 
Chinese  generals  lost  all  self-control,  and  excitedly 
told  the  German  interpreter  that  they  would  die 
rather  than  be  taken  prisoners." 

"  Of  course  they  did,"  said  Jozuna.  "They  are  so 
wretchedly  ignorant  of  international  law  that  they 
live  in  the  third,  instead  of  the  nineteenth,  century. 
They  supposed  they  would  be  brutally  beaten  and 
tortured,  instead  of  being  treated  as  gentlemen  and 
their  men  as  honorable  prisoners  of  war.  We  ad- 
mired the  plucky  captain  who  fought  us  this  morn- 
ing, but  we  could  not  honor  these  fellows." 

"Well,  at  any  rate,  they  made  the  German  tell 
Captain  Halley  that  he  must  turn  the  ship  back  to 
Taku ;  but  your  lieutenant  had  gone  off  in  his  boat 
before  the  German  engineer  had  made  clear  what  the 
Chinese  officers  had  demanded.  When  the  Chinese 
soldiers  understood  that  they  must  follow  the  Na- 
niwa,  they  lost  their  heads  and  got  into  a  panic  at 
once,  rushing  about  the  deck  as  if  mad.  I  never  saw 


THE   SINKING   OF   THE  TRANSPORT.      137 

such  wild  creatures.  I  thought  if  we  had  only  a 
hose  ready  to  squirt  cold  water  over  them,  as  was 
done  on  the  Pacific  mail  steamer,  we  might  have 
cooled  them  off." 

"  What  a  pity  you  or  we  couldn't  give  them  water 
instead  of  fire.  Well,  what  next  ? " 

"  Well,  do  you  know  that  the  generals  then  actu- 
ally gave  orders  to  arm  the  soldiers,  declaring  that 
they  would  fight  the  Japanese  rather  than  be  taken 
prisoner.  At  this  Captain  Halley  called  a  council  of 
the  Chinese  officers  and  of  the  foreigners  on  board 
and  gave  notice,  through  the  German  engineer,  that 
they  should  all  leave  the  ship  if  the  Chinese  intended 
to  fight. 

"  At  this  the  Chinese  generals  angrily  left  the  con- 
ference and  called  out  to  their  officers  to  detach 
parties  of  soldiers  to  guard  davits  and  boats,  and  to 
hold  as  prisoners  the  captain,  his  clerk,  the  German, 
and  all  the  foreigners  in  the  engineering  department 
down  below  — 

" '  Shoot  them  dead,  every  man  of  them,  if  they 
show  any  signs  of  obeying  the  Japanese  orders  or 
leaving  the  vessel.' " 

"Poor  fellows!"  said  Jozuna.  "What  a  terrible 
thing  ignorance  is.  Why,  if  these  Chinese  had  only 
known  anything,  even  the  A  B  C  of  international 
law,  they  would  have  trusted  themselves  to  us  at 
once,  and  have  saved  themselves  and  their  soldiers." 


138  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

"  So  you  see,"  said  Clarence,  "  like  the  Dutch  that 
once  took  Holland,  the  Chinese  had  captured  their 
own  steamer.  When  your  captain  again  ran  up  his 
signals  for  us  to  follow  the  Naniwa,  the  German 
asked  Captain  Halley  to  hoist  his  talking  flags  and 
to  ask  for  another  boat.  This  time,  when  the  lieu- 
tenant and  yourself  came,  you  could  not  see  what 
was  going  on  on  board,  but  the  Chinese  generals  had 
regained  their  senses.  They  ordered  a  double  file  of 
their  trustiest  men  to  keep  back  the  swarm  of  excited 
soldiers  that  were  raging  like  maddened  tigers.  But 
for  the  loaded  and  cocked  guns,  and  the  line  of 
bayonets,  some  of  them  would  have  rushed  to  the 
gangway  and  fired  upon  you.  I  could  see  you  and 
the  lieutenant  with  your  hands  on  your  swords,  as  the 
German  engineer  tried  to  explain  that  Captain  Halley 
was  not  free  to  obey  the  orders  from  the  Nanivua" 

"  Yes,"  said  Jozuna,  "  I  had  to  translate  between 
the  German,  who  could  talk  English,  and  our  lieu- 
tenant ;  and  I  remember  that  while  the  request  of  the 
Chinese  seemed  so  reasonable  to  the  German  and 
Captain  Halley,  it  seemed  most  unreasonable  to  our 
lieutenant.  When  we  went  back,  the  matter  was 
talked  over  in  the  cabin  for  nearly  a  half  hour. 
Then  I  took  out  the  order  from  the  captain  to  run 
up  the  signal  M.L.  ("Leave  the  ship  immediately"). 

"  Why,  how  could  we  do  that  ? "  asked  Clarence 
Burnham.  "  Every  davit  was  guarded  by  at  least 


THE   SINKING   OF   THE   TRANSPORT.      139 

ten  Chinese  soldiers,  and  not  a  boat  could  be  swung, 
so  Captain  H alley  ran  up  another  signal.  It  was 
praying  by  bunting.  I  can  laugh  at  the  prayer  now, 
but  it  was  no  fun  then." 

"Oh,  yes,"  said  Jozuna,  "we  read  it  with  our 
glasses  right  away.  It  said,  '  Not  allowed/  In  a 
moment  or  two  we  saw  another,  and  read  it,  'Send 
a  boat.'  Another  prayer,  wasn't  it  ?  " 

"Why  didn't  you  send  the  cutter  ? "  asked  Clarence. 

"  Why,  old  chum,  just  look  at  it  from  our  side. 
We  had  spent  nearly  four  hours  in  negotiations 
which  were  fruitless,  and  the  Chinese  war  vessels 
might  be  coming  at  any  moment  and  gobble  us  up, 
for  our  captain  was  possessed  of  the  idea,  which 
seemed  very  reasonable  then,  that  the  whole  of  the 
Chinese  fleet,  with  battleships  and  torpedo-boats, 
was  coming,  and  might  at  any  moment  appear." 

"Well,  that  does  alter  the  case,"  said  Clarence; 
"but  with  pandemonium  let  loose  on  the  Chinese 
ship,  and  men  looking  murderously  at  us,  with  arms 
in  their  hands,  our  hearts  sank  when  Captain  Hal- 
ley  put  down  his  glass  and  read  the  letters  HJ. 
("  Boat  cannot  come").  Then  I  began  to  pray.  Curi- 
ously enough  I  said  within,  '  Now  I  lay  me  down  to 
sleep,'  and  got  through  the  four  lines  before  I  real- 
ized that  it  was  rote  rather  than  reality. 

"  I  had  scarcely  got  to  '  the  fifth  wheel  in  my 
coach,'  of  rather  worthless  petition,  I  fear,  when 


140  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

Captain  H alley  roared  out,  'They  are  surely  going 
to  sink  us,  so  go  down  to  the  engine-room  and  tell 
the  engineers  to  be  ready  to  come  up  on  deck  at  a 
second's  notice/ 

"  I  went  down  and  warned  the  men,  five  foreigners, 
one  of  them  a  Manila  man.  When  I  reached  the 
deck  again,  Captain  Halley  pointed  his  finger  toward 
the  Naniwa  and  said :  '  Look  !  They  are  hoisting 
the  red  flag ;  that  means  they  are  going  to  open  fire. 
Now,  boy,  you  come  with  me;  and  if  the  Chinese 
don't  kill  us  before  we  get  there,  we  will  go  to  the 
wheel-house  and  get  life-preservers,  jump  over  the 
ship's  side,  and  take  our  chances  in  the  water.' 

"  All  this  time  the  Chinese  were  yelling  out  that 
no  foreigner  should  be  allowed  to  leave  the  ship,  but 
the  Chinese  sailors  knew  enough  about  signals  to 
realize  that  the  Naniwa  would  soon  open  her 
batteries.  While  their  attention  was  thus  taken  up 
with  watching  the  warship,  we  dashed  down  from 
the  bridge  and  into  the  wheel-house.  Horrors ! 
There  was  only  one  life-preserver. 

" '  Here,  boy,  put  this  on  yourself,  and  I'll  take  my 
chances/  said  Captain  Halley. 

"  Just  at  that  moment  I  saw  the  torpedo  tube  of  the 
Naniwa  shoot  out  a  torpedo,  which  must  have  missed 
us.  I  had  no  time  to  argue  with  Captain  Halley,  but 
I  was  bound  he  shouldn't  run  any  more  risk  for  me, 
so  I  threw  down  the  life-preserver  —  threw  it  at  him, 


THE   SINKING   OF   THE  TRANSPORT.      141 

I  may  say.  Then,  getting  out  of  the  wheel-house,  I 
jumped  out  in  the  air,  on  the  side  opposite  from  the 
Naniwa,  and  down  into  the  sea.  Well,  sir,  I  shouldn't 
have  believed  how  much  I  could  have  thought  and  felt 
inside  what  was  probably  two  or  three  seconds ;  but  I 
seemed  to  be  in  a  storm,  and  all  the  whole  world  — 
sun,  moon,  and  stars  —  seemed  to  be  exploding. 
'  The  crack  of  doom,'  which  I  had  so  often  heard 
about,  seemed  to  have  come  in  a  rattle." 

"  I  suppose  that  was  the  time  our  two  big  guns 
fired  the  shells  that  hit  the  transport  just  at  the  water 
line  ?  "  said  Jozuna. 

"  Yes,  but  besides  the  big  shells,  there  were  other 
shots,  for  I  am  sure  that  a  whole  broadside  must  have 
been  fired.  The  moment  I  came  up  out  of  the  salt 
water  —  I  remember  the  taste  of  it —  and  had  rubbed 
my  eyes  for  a  second,  the  whole  air  seemed  to  be 
thick  with  smoke  and  the  finest  kind  of  coal  dust, 
which  had  come  down  in  a  shower.  The  shell  must 
have  exploded  right  in  a  coal  bunker  and  pulverized 
the  coal,  so  that  the  dust  filled  the  air.  When  I  fully 
regained  my  eyesight  and  other  senses,  I  could  see 
that  the  transport  was  sinking  at  the  stern.  She 
had  lost  her  funnel  and  almost  seemed  to  have  com- 
mitted hara-kiri,  for  her  centre  works  were  gone. 

"This  was  not  the  worst.  From  along  the  gun- 
wale and  between  the  deck  ports  the  Chinese  soldiers 
on  board  were  firing  as  if  they  were  bound  to  kill  all 


142  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

the  foreigners  struggling  in  the  water.  I  saw  Cap- 
tain H alley  and  the  German  engineer,  some  distance 
away  from  me,  the  former  with  a  face  black  as  a 
Guinea  negro's,  from  the  coal  dust,  while  nearer 
the  hulk  were  scores  of  Chinese,  swimming  like  my- 
self for  dear  life.  All  around  me  the  bullets  from 
the  Chinese  on  the  ship  were  tearing  the  water  and 
splashing  it  over  me,  and  I  saw  three  or  four  poor 
fellows  thus  killed  by  their  own  countrymen. 

"  I  wondered  how  long  my  strength  would  hold 
out,  even  supposing  that  I  was  not  hit  by  one  of  the 
Chinese  rifle  balls.  I  was  not  afraid  of  any  of  the 
balls  from  the  machine  guns  of  the  Naniwa,  which  I 
could  hear  rattling  and  tearing  through  the  air  above 
me,  for  I  was  on  the  other  side  of  the  transport,  so 
that  her  hull  was  between  me  and  the  man-of-war. 
Soon  the  Naniwas  firing  stopped,  and  the  air  was 
clear. 

"  In  about  half  an  hour  from  the  moment  she  was 
first  struck,  the  ship  went  down,  stern  foremost,  and 
by  that  time  I  was  beginning  to  feel  my  strength  give 
way,  and  expected  soon  to  be  drowned.  How  curious 
it  seemed !  I  thought  of  pretty  much  everything  in 
creation :  my  boyhood  days  and  all  that  I  had  ever 
done  that  was  wrong,  especially  against  my  mother, 
and  yet  I  was  determined  to  keep  alive  as  long  as  I 
could. 

"  It  was  a  terrific  sight  when  the  transport  threw 


THE   SINKING   OF   THE   TRANSPORT.      143 

her  bow  up  in  the  air  and  seemed  almost  to  hurl  defi- 
ance at  the  warship  that  had  struck  her,  and  then 
disappeared.  I  saw  your  boat  moving  about,  throwing 
life-preservers  to  the  Chinese,  and  you  know  how  I 
yelled  to  you." 

"Yes,  my  brave  fellow,"  said  Jozuna;  "it  was  the 
happiest  day  of  my  life  when  rowing  toward  you. 
After  we  had  picked  up  the  captain  and  Manila 
man,  I  asked  the  officer  for  the  honor  of  letting  me, 
all  by  myself,  help  you  into  the  boat." 

It  was  indeed  true  that  out  of  the  foreigners  on 
board  all  were  missing  except  the  four  picked  up  by 
the  two  boats  of  the  Naniwa,  which  was  expecting 
the  Chinese  fleet,  and  so  steamed  away. 

In  thirty-six  minutes  after  the  torpedo  had  been 
discharged,  the  ship  was  below  the  waves.  Immedi- 
ately after  the  first  firing  of  the  shell  that  tore  out  the 
interior  works  of  the  transport,  the  air  was  so  filled 
with  coal  dust  that,  between  it  and  the  smoke,  the 
gunners  on  the  Naniwa  could  for  a  few  moments  see 
nothing.  Yet  within  that  black  cloud  there  went  on 
a  hell  of  terror  and  wild  firing ;  for,  like  dogs  in  the 
manger,  the  Chinese  soldiers  who  were  unable  to 
swim  fired  not  only  at  the  foreigners,  but  at  their  own 
comrades  in  the  water.  It  is  as  probable  that  the 
missing  Europeans  went  down  under  the  balls  as 
that  they  were  drowned. 

The  next  day  the  French  gunboat  Lion,  passing  by, 


144  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

found  forty-five  of  the  survivors  clinging  to  the  mast 
of  the  sunken  ship  and  brought  them  to  Chemulpo, 
in  Korea.  Nearly  five  hundred  more  of  them  were 
able  in  their  boats  to  get  to  land,  or  to  swim  ashore 
to  some  one  of  the  islands  which  in  that  wonderful 
Korean  Archipelago  are  so  numerous  as  to  make  the 
king  of  Korea  "the  sovereign  of  ten  thousand  isles." 
About  a  hundred  and  twenty  of  these  poor  fellows 
were  brought  to  China  by  the  ill-fated  German  gun- 
boat Iltis. 

It  came  to  pass  that  because  the  Japanese  had  sunk 
a  ship  flying  the  British  flag,  a  storm  of  protests  and 
a  war  of  words  broke  out,  which  for  weeks  together 
concealed  from  the  world  the  fact  that  here  was  a 
nation  thoroughly  up  on  points  of  international  law, 
and  yet  able  to  conduct  war  on  thoroughly  business- 
like principles  with  rapidity  and  power. 

"Why,  think  of  it,"  said  Captain  Halley,  as  he 
talked  with  the  captain  of  the  Naniwa  two  days 
afterward,  when  both  he  and  Clarence  Burnham  were 
invited  to  dinner  in  the  officer's  mess  room,  and  when 
the  admiral  of  the  squadron  honored  the  company 
with  his  presence,  "we  have  always  thought  you 
Japanese  were  an  emotional  people.  The  world 
thinks  that  the  Chinaman  is  the  cool  and  stolid  man, 
able  to  control  himself,  while  the  Japanese  is  excit- 
able and  apt  to  lose  his  head  in  a  crisis ;  but  I  con- 
fess that,  although  I  don't  enjoy  war,  it  seems  a 


THE   SINKING  OF  THE   TRANSPORT.      145 

wonderful  thing  to  me  that  within  seven  hours  of  one 
day,  your  three  ships,  Admiral,  should  have  destroyed 
one  Chinese  man-of-war,  driven  away  another  dis- 
abled, captured  a  gunboat,  and  sunk  a  transport." 

The  admiral  bowed.  Though  in  reality  his  head 
was  level,  yet  he  was  pleased;  for  Englishmen  are 
not  usually  profuse  in  compliments  to  the  Far  East- 
erns. 

Captain  Halley  went  on,  "  It  seemed  to  me  mag- 
nificent that  instead  of  pursuing  the  Chinese  ship  to 
sink  her,  the  Yoshino  should  come  back  to  be  ready 
for  the  expected  Chinese  fleet,  and  that  you  stuck  to 
the  business  of  prime  importance,  that  on  which  you 
were  sent,  of  intercepting  the  transport." 

Both  admiral  and  officers  who  had  had  to  decide 
very  quickly  concerning  the  sinking  of  the  ship  were 
not  at  all  sorry  for  what  they  had  done,  notwithstand- 
ing that  over  all  the  East  the  British  flag  is  one  that 
demands  and  commands  respect.  Indeed,  this  is  true 
all  over  the  world  ;  for  the  red  flag  of  the  double  cross 
is  looked  up  to  with  awe.  Nevertheless  the  Japanese 
decided  quickly  because  they  knew  the  nature  of  the 
charter  —  in  case  of  hostilities  breaking  out,  the  ship 
was  Chinese  property ;  and  war  had  broken  out. 
They  believed,  therefore,  that  the  world  would  ap- 
prove their  decision. 

Who  knows  but  that  the  armed  collision  between 
China  and  Japan,  which  changed  the  face  of  the 


146  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

East  and  the  currents  of  the  world's  history,  had  its 
pivot  in  the  sinking  of  the  transport.  Had  these 
eleven  hundred  troops,  together  with  the  able  German 
who  had  given  China  her  modern  forts  and  trained 
officers  in  engineering,  landed  at  Asan,  the  Chinese 
might  have  been  emboldened,  and  the  Japanese  made 
so  prudent  that  the  advantage  which  they  gained  by 
the  military  triumph  at  Asan,  on  the  3Oth  of  July, 
might  never  have  been  won ;  and,  instead  of  an  unin- 
terrupted chain  of  Japanese  victories,  a  different  set 
of  precedents  might  have  altered  the  whole  cam- 
paign. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

FOLLOWING   THE   JAPANESE   ARMY   IN   KOREA. 

THE  time  had  come  for  Japan  to  let  the  world 
know  that  she  was  tired  of  receiving  insults, 
slights,  and  the  ignoring  to  her  loss  of  the 
world's  code  of  law,  either  at  the  hands  of  China  or 
of  any  of  the  so-called  Christian  nations.  For  the 
first  time  the  money-loving  British,  as  well  as  other 
people  supposed  to  worship  "the  almighty"  shilling, 
franc,  mark,  croner,  or  dollar,  were  taught  that  pro- 
fessed neutrals  must  not  try  to  coin  money  out  of 
belligerents,  unless  they  are  willing  to  take  great 
risks. 

"  But  it's  awful,"  said  Clarence  Burnham  to  Jozuna, 
after  they  had  got  by  themselves,  "to  have  a  thou- 
sand men  '  sent  to  eternity,'  as  we  say,  in  a  few  min- 
utes, in  this  way." 

"Well,  what  can  you  do  with  armed  men,  who  will 
not  surrender,  and  declare,  because  they  have  superior 
numbers,  that  they  will  fight  rather  than  surrender, 
especially  after  the  captain  of  a  man-of-war  has  kept 
his  signals  flying  four  hours  ?  These  Chinese  officers 


148  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

are  alone  responsible.  You  told  me  yourself  how  they 
drew  their  fingers  across  their  throats,  to  let  you  know 
what  would  happen  if  you  obeyed  us.  Thus  they 
threatened  the  lives  of  those  who  had  warned  and 
informed  them.  You  remember  what  your  own  Gen- 
eral Sherman  said." 

"Well,  'that  beats  the  Dutch,  it  does  indeed/  that 
you,  a  Japanese,  should  quote  our  American  generals 
against  us." 

"Oh,  it's  not  the  first  time,"  said  Jozuna,  "that 
we've  done  or  can  do  it.  When  those  wild  fellows 
in  Tokio  assassinated  our  cabinet  officer,  Okubo,  I 
remember  how  some  Americans  talked  to  me  about 
Japan's  being  a  barbarous  country ;  but  I  replied,  'Yes, 
but  didn't  your  Lincoln  and  Garfield  suffer  in  the 
same  way  ? '  I  had  to  defend  my  country,  you  see." 

"  Well,  you  have  me,  my  chum,  but  Sherman  was 
right.  But,  by  the  way,  how  curious  it  is,  isn't  it, 
that  the  American  schooner  which  in  1866  violated 
the  frontiers  and  broke  the  neutrality  of  Korea,  by 
dashing  into  the  Ta-Tong  River,  —  whether  to  rob  the 
graves  or  open  illegal  trade,  I  do  not  know,  —  was 
named  the  General  Sherman.  After  the  Koreans 
had  killed  the  last  man  and  burnt  the  ship,  there 
began  those  diplomatic  negotiations  that  opened 
Korea  to  foreign  trade  and  residence,  and  out  of 
that  has  grown  this  big  war  which  has  now  begun. 
How  mighty  strange  that  I  should  be  in  it,  and  that 


FOLLOWING  THE  JAPANESE   ARMY.        149 

we  should  here  quote  General  Sherman,  whose  re- 
mark, to  the  effect  that  war  is  not  Heaven,  amuses 
you  so." 

The  war  had  opened,  and  as  soon  as  the  events  of 
the  closing  days  of  July  were  known  in  China  and 
Japan,  the  respective  governments  made  formal 
declaration  to  the  world.  Contrast  the  tone  and 
wording  of  the  two  manifestoes. 

On  the  one  hand,  we  have  the  angry  utterances  of 
a  barbarous  giant,  conscious  of  his  size  and  the  num- 
ber of  his  hordes,  yet  drunk  with  conceit  and  the  lust 
of  vengeance,  who  looks  on  his  enemy  as  a  dwarf. 
He  orders  to  the  slaughter  tens  of  thousands  of  his 
men  who  must  face  death,  wounds,  and  disease  with- 
out hospitals,  surgeons,  or  nurses.  He  does  this  with 
little  or  no  regard  for  the  principles  of  civilized  war- 
fare, as  already  accepted  by  the  living  and  progressive 
nations. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  dignified  language,  with  a 
clear  insight  into  the  principles  involved,  and  in  the 
firm  conviction  of  right,  the  government  of  Japan 
speaks  as  an  athlete,  who,  in  self-discipline,  knows 
his  strength,  thrice  armed  because  he  "  hath  his  quar- 
rel just."  Already  a  signatory  to  the  congresses  of 
nations  and  the  codes  of  civilized  law,  with  all  the 
reserve  force  of  centuries  of  training  in  self-control 
and  self-respect,  and  with  sincere  acceptance  of  mod- 
ern science  and  philanthropy,  with  skilled  surgeons, 


150  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

nurses,  and  hospital  appliances,  both  in  the  field,  and 
on  ship,  and  at  home,  little  Japan,  with  one- tenth  the 
area  and  population  of  China,  never  flinched.  Taking 
up  the  gauge  of  battle,  government  and  people  resolved 
on  land  and  sea,  with  do-shi  (one  purpose),  with  one 
union  of  hearts  and  hands,  to  persevere  to  the  end, 
whatever  the  cost.  The  whole  Japanese  people  be- 
came a  Do-shi-sha  (a  Society  with  One  Endeavor). 

It  were  less  important  to  inform  our  readers  how, 
with  marvellous  order,  celerity,  and  secrecy,  Japan 
called  out  her  reserves  and  moved  her  active  army 
with  their  guns  and  horses  into  Korea,  than  to  tell 
of  the  fortunes  of  our  two  heroes.  Within  ten  days 
from  the  receipt  of  orders  in  the  camps  at  home, 
twenty  thousand  Japanese  soldiers  of  all  arms  had 
landed  in  Korea.  Each  man  was  perfectly  equipped, 
and  all  were  united  in  one  burning  desire  Jo  do  their 
emperor  honor  and  exalt  their  country. 

A  military  cordon  was  quickly  drawn  around  the 
Korean  capital,  and  a  force  sent  to  Asan.  Through 
terrible  difficulties  of  flood  and  field,  the  Chinese 
camp  was  reached,  attacked,  and  broken  up.  Four 
thousand  or  more  Chinese  were  thus  sent  fugitives 
into  the  country. 

By  the  connivance  of  the  pro-Chinese  Koreans, 
most  of  these  were  able  to  reach  Ping  Yang  in  the 
north,  where  Li  Hung  Chang's  drilled  army  and 
the  Manchurian  cavalry  had  seized  the  city  and  all 


FOLLOWING  THE   JAPANESE   ARMY.        151 

the  advantageous  points,  fortifying  them  so  as  to 
make  their  position  seemingly  impregnable.  Long 
training  under  German  drill-masters  and  engineers 
had  resulted  in  making  these  men  of  North  China  — 
so  much  finer  in  appearance  than  those  from  the 
southern  provinces,  out  of  which  come  all  our  Chi- 
nese in  America  —  a  body  of  superb  troops  under 
competent  officers.  With  the  aid  of  thousands  of 
Korean  laborers  impressed  into  their  service,  they 
had  reared  twenty-seven  forts,  and  finished  them 
according  to  the  science  of  our  day  and  times. 

Against  this  mass  of  fortifications,  garrisoned  by 
thirteen  thousand  men  and  abundantly  supplied  with 
cannon,  the  Japanese  were  to  march  in  three  divi- 
sions, westwardly  from  Gensan  on  Broughton's 
Bay,  up  southward  from  Seoul,  and  eastward  from 
the  fleet,  cooperating  in  that  same  Ta-Tong  River 
into  which  the  General  Sherman  had  sailed  years 
before. 

History  has  told  the  story  in  detail  of  the  army ; 
but  our  narrative,  which  deals  with  Clarence  Burn- 
ham,  must  show  how  it  came  to  pass  that,  suddenly 
blossoming  into  a  war  correspondent,  he  was  able 
from  the  heights  of  Peony  Mountain,  overlooking 
Ping  Yang  city  and  its  battle-fields,  to  see  most  of 
the  details  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  decisive  con- 
flicts in  modern  times. 

It  came  on  this  wise.     The  captain  of  the  Naniwa 


152  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

had  himself  seen  Clarence  Burnham  rescued,  and 
learned  the  story  of  his  life  from  Jozuna.  He  was 
rather  pleased  to  find  one  so  familiar  with  Japanese 
affairs,  not  only  with  the  general  run  of  manners  and 
customs,  but  also  with  the  language  and  national 
lore,  and  even  acquainted  by  experience  with  the 
ways  of  the  Japanese  in  eating  and  drinking  and 
tramping,  knowing  the  soldier's  diet  and  discipline ; 
and,  withal,  being  a  young  fellow  of  snap  and  grit, 
his  heart  was  quite  open  to  an  idea  which  Jozuna 
had  proposed,  and  Clarence  Burnham  kept  pressing. 

It  was  nothing  else  than  to  be  allowed  to  accom- 
pany the  army  as  war  correspondent  on  its  campaign 
through  Korea.  The  old  literary  ambition  having 
repossessed  him,  the  boy  had  nursed  it,  and,  though 
it  seemed  like  stretching  the  license  given  him  by  his 
father,  he  would  venture.  After  having  escaped 
Japanese  torpedoes  and  bombshells,  steamer  explo- 
sions and  Chinese  rifles,  Clarence  Burnham  felt  for 
the  moment  as  if  he  had  thus  far  led  a  charmed  life. 
He  believed  that  damage  might  happen  to  somebody 
else,  but  was  not  likely  to  come  near  him.  He  knew 
how  well  New  York  editors  valued  knowledge,  at 
first  hand,  of  battles  and  campaign  news,  and  he 
resolved  to  profit  by  this  as  well  as  to  gain  experi- 
ence. 

So  while  Captain  Halley  and  the  Chinese  pris- 
oners, transferred  to  the  despatch-boat,  were  sent  to 


FOLLOWING  THE  JAPANESE  ARMY.        153 

Sasebo,  Clarence  Burnham  was  put  on  board  a  ves- 
sel going  to  Chemulpo.  He  carried,  indeed,  a  piti- 
fully small  amount  of  personal  baggage,  most  of 
which  Jozuna  had  lent  him ;  but,  what  was  more  than 
gold  and  gems  to  this  enterprising  young  American, 
it  included  a  letter  to  the  Japanese  general  com- 
manding. 

It  set  forth  that  Clarence  Burnham  was  not  only 
well  qualified  and  acquainted  with  the  hardships  he 
must  undergo  in  camp  and  diet,  as  well  as  in  the 
risks  of  a  soldier's  life,  but  that  he  might  be  also 
valuable  from  his  knowledge  of  two  or  three  lan- 
guages. The  captain  had  known  his  father  and 
vouched  for  his  character.  He  therefore  begged  the 
general  commanding  to  grant  Clarence  Burnham's 
request,  and,  if  necessary,  to  telegraph  to  the  depart- 
ment in  Tokio  to  gain  official  permission  to  follow 
the  army  north  as  war  correspondent 

The  vessel  arrived  off  Chemulpo  at  an  unfortunate 
hour.  It  was  low  tide,  and  between  the  ship  and  the 
beach  —  for  the  beautiful  new  Bund,  or  thoroughfare 
facing  the  sea,  and  built  with  stone  and  concrete,  that 
now  welcomes  the  newcomer,  was  not  then  even  in 
dreams — lay  a  vast  expanse  of  shamelessly  exposed 
soil  apparently  taking  a  sun  bath.  In  exasperating 
delay  they  waited,  until  the  great  ugly  stretch  of 
mud  uncovered  by  the  ebb  had  been  first  washed, 
then  caressed,  and  finally  made  to  disappear  under 


i54  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

the  mighty  flood  tide ;  for  the  West  Korean  coast  is 
a  place  of  tidal  wonders. 

Clarence  beguiled  the  waiting  hours  by  picturing 
to  himself  the  events  of  the  fairy  tale,  and  how 
Japan's  Queen  Jingu,  far  back  in  the  misty  centu- 
ries of  mythology,  had  made  the  mighty  tides  come 
and  go  by  casting  in  the  water,  at  the  critical 
moment,  the  flashing  jewels  of  the  ebbing  and  the 
flowing  tide.  Thus  she  overwhelmed  the  Korean 
host  and  ships,  and  floated  her  own  army  on  to  vic- 
tory. Out  of  this  fairy  tale  grew  the  age-long  claim 
of  the  Japanese  to  Korea. 

Once  on  shore,  he  was  able  by  means  of  his  im- 
posing document  to  pass  the  challenging  sentinels 
and  reach  Seoul,  the  Korean  capital.  With  slight 
delay,  despite  the  press  of  business,  he  was  ushered 
into  the  commanding  general's  presence. 

Now  it  is  never  a  good  thing  to  ask  a  man  for 
money,  until  he  has  had  his  breakfast.  The  best  time 
for  a  favor  is  probably  within  half  an  hour  after  a 
good  dinner  has  been  finished.  Clarence  Burnham 
had  the  good  fortune  to  appear  before  the  general 
just  when,  having  deposited  under  his  diaphragm  a 
good  warm  meal  that  suited  his  taste,  he  had  doffed 
his  "armor,"  as  he  called  his  military  uniform,  and  in 
comfortable  kimono  was  lounging  on  a  Korean  tiger- 
skin  in  a  bamboo  easy-chair. 

Somehow  the  whole  matter  of  the  American  lad's 


FOLLOWING  THE  JAPANESE   ARMY.        155 

boasting  that  he  could  eat  and  enjoy  a  Japanese  sol- 
dier's rations  struck  the  general  as  a  good  joke. 
Serious  as  the  business  was,  he  made  up  his  mind 
to  have  his  fun  out  of  it.  If  all  were  well,  he  might 
be  as  jolly  as  Daikoku,  the  patron  of  happiness  and 
wealth.  After  keeping  up  a  severe  air  with  a  ter- 
rible scrutiny  and  a  veritable  Gatling-gun  fire  of  ques- 
tions, he  asked  the  would-be  correspondent  if  he 
were  hungry.  As  Clarence  had  tasted  nothing  for 
six  hours,  in  his  eagerness  to  get  at  the  Japanese 
commander,  he  could  honestly  say  "  yes."  There- 
upon an  orderly  was  despatched  to  bring  in  a  sample 
soldier's  meal. 

Back  came  the  orderly  with  a  Korean  tray,  or  low 
table,  on  which  were  arranged  the  eatables  which  in 
nature,  quality,  and  amount  made  an  exact  copy  of 
a  Japanese  soldier's  rations. 

"  Set  down  the  tray  before  the  gentleman,"  said 
the  general  to  the  orderly.  This  was  done. 

"Attention,  fall  to  and  eat,"  cried  the  general. 

Clarence  saw  the  point  at  once.  The  general  was 
testing  him  as  to  his  use  of  chop-sticks  and  his  skill 
in  disposing  of  Japanese  victuals  with  these  two 
sticks.  He  would  also  find  out  whether  Clarence  was 
shamming  or  "playing  badger"  —  instead  of  "opos- 
sum," as  we  should  say — in  pretending  to  like  sol- 
dier food. 

But  Clarence,  who  had  eaten  many  hundreds  of 


156  IN  THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

meals  in  Japanese  hotels,  and  had  known  some  of  the 
young  officers  in  the  barracks,  was  perfectly  at  home. 
He  seized  the  chop-sticks,  holding  them  in  the  cor- 
rect way,  —  as  every  one  of  us  holds  our  jaws,  — one 
being  fixed  fast,  the  other  wagging  loosely  up  and 
down.  The  lower  stick  rested  firmly  on  the  middle 
finger  and  space  between  thumb  and  index  finger 
while  clamped  down  by  the  lower  joint  of  the  thumb, 
held  on  top.  The  loose  stick,  which  did  the  business, 
resting  on  the  first  joint  of  the  forefinger,  was  moved 
up  and  down  by  the  first  and  second  fingers. 

Clarence,  quickly  getting  the  eating  tools  into  easy 
and  proper  position,  went  at  the  boiled  rice  with 
gusto,  filling  his  mouth  without  dropping  a  grain  of 
the  snow-white  cereal,  which  was  cooked  as  only  the 
Japanese  know  how  to  cook  it — making  it  neither 
a  poultice,  nor  a  soup,  nor  a  deceptive  thing  which 
is  glue  on  the  outside  and  like  oak  within.  Then 
he  attacked  the  vegetable  mess  and  got  it  all  down 
without  sign  of  anything  but  appropriateness  and 
enjoyment.  The  black  beans  and  pickled  daikon 
radish  also  disappeared.  In  due  time  Clarence  cried 
out,  with  correct  accent,  "Ippai,  arigato"  (Enough, 
thanks). 

When,  at  a  sign  from  the  general,  the  orderly  asked 
if  he  would  have  any  more,  Clarence  again  bowing 
said,  "  Mo-yoroshi "  (Quite  sufficient),  at  which  the 
general  and  the  young  officers  around  him  roared. 


FOLLOWING  THE   JAPANESE   ARMY.        157 

"Jodzu  ni  dekita"  (Cleverly  done),  cried  all  to- 
gether in  a  chorus  of  admiration. 

Then  the  general  opened  his  quick-firing  battery 
of  questions  as  to  what  Clarence  would  do  if  this, 
that,  or  the  other  dire  result  might  happen  on  the 
march  or  in  battle.  The  issue  was  that  when  Clar- 
ence left  the  general's  quarters,  he  had  his  prize  in 
hand.  Permission  to  accompany  the  armies  of  the 
Mikado  within  the  limits  of  Korea  was  given  him,  but 
authority  to  cross  into  China  was  bestowed  only  by 
special  order  from  Tokio.  The  document  might  be 
rescinded  by  order  of  the  general  at  any  time.  At 
once  Clarence  had  a  case  of  waterproof  Korean  paper 
made  for  it,  and  stowed  it  in  his  bosom. 

Between  the  merchants  at  Chemulpo,  his  father's 
correspondents,  and  the  American  missionaries  in 
Seoul,  some  of  them  being  from  "  the  banks  of  the 
old  Raritan,"  it  was  not  difficult  for  Clarence  Burn- 
ham  to  get  a  new  outfit.  A  Korean  tailor  quickly 
made  him  a  stout  suit  of  brown  duck,  and  a  cloth 
overcoat  for  chilly  weather.  One  American  mission- 
ary lent  him  a  splendid  field-glass,  and  a  business 
man  advanced  him  enough  money  to  get  the  latest 
pattern  of  a  revolver,  with  belt  and  cartridges.  From 
the  private  supplies  of  the  Americans  he  got  fountain 
pen,  common  pens,  penholders,  and  pencils  galore. 

Clarence  made  the  acquaintance  of  some  of  the 
Japanese  correspondents  from  Tokio,  getting  some 


158  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

useful  hints  from  them.  Among  this  company  of 
intelligent  young  Japanese  was  one  who  actually 
expected,  if  he  got  a  chance,  to  lower  himself  from 
a  military  balloon  and,  up  in  mid  air,  to  take  snap 
shots  and  photographs  of  battles,  or,  at  least,  of  forti- 
fications. The  others  were  wonderfully  well  equipped 
with  maps  of  the  country,  itineraries,  and  ground 
plans  of  the  Korean  cities,  especially  of  Ping  Yang. 

One  of  these  war  correspondents,  Masaro  by  name, 
was  the  son  of  a  Japanese  clerk,  a  gentleman  or  sa- 
murai once  employed  by  Clarence's  father  in  Kobe. 
Although  the  two  young  men  had  never  met  before, 
they  struck  up  a  mutually  pleasant  acquaintance,  and 
were  from  that  time  very  helpful  to  each  other. 

The  Japanese  were  delighted  to  find  a  foreigner 
who  not  only  knew  their  country's  language  and  his- 
tory, in  outline  at  least,  and  appreciated  them,  but 
who  even  knew,  especially,  both  the  history  and  the 
fairy  tales  of  the  Japanese  in  Korea,  or,  as  the  coun- 
try is  called  in  Japanese  nursery  tales,  the  "  Treasure 
Land  of  the  West." 

In  fact,  despite  all  its  hardships,  this  was  to  be 
an  educative,  yes,  even  a  reading  campaign.  The 
Mikado's  government  had  printed  a  well-written  his- 
tory of  the  Japanese  campaign  in  Korea,  1592-1597. 
This  literature  was  in  the  soldiers'  knapsacks  before 
the  army  started  northward  late  in  August. 

Their  objective  point  was  Ping  Yang,  the  capital 


FOLLOWING   THE   JAPANESE   ARMY.        159 

city  of  the  northwestern  province  of  Korea  border- 
ing on  China.  Against  this  city  two  other  Japanese 
columns  were  moving.  Both  were  to  come  by  sea ; 
one,  the  left  wing,  up  the  Ta-Tong  River,  from  the 
west,  and  the  other,  the  right  wing,  from  Gensan  on 
Broughton's  Bay,  on  the  east  coast. 

It  was  a  rough  road  over  which  to  move  a  modern 
army,  lying  over  precipitous  mountain  ranges,  through 
knee-deep  quagmires  of  mud,  and  in  rocky  denies  and 
rough  places,  —  the  whole  line  from  the  Han  to  the 
Yalu  River  making  not  so  much  a  road,  in  the  sense 
of  anything  on  which  care  or  labor  had  been  spent, 
as  a  groove  or  a  scratch  on  the  landscape.  One 
might  call  it  a  great  gully,  scoured  out  by  torrential 
rains,  or  ground  up  by  the  hoofs  of  horses  and  oxen. 
Nevertheless,  such  had  served  Korea  for  centuries, 
and  was  up  to  the  standard  which  prevails  in  barba- 
rous and  semi-civilized  countries. 

Since,  however,  the  weather  was  so  very  fine,  the 
scenery  so  superb,  Masaro  such  an  entertaining  com- 
panion, and  the  Japanese  such  good  comrades  in 
travelling,  that,  apart  from  the  discomfort  which 
came  on  at  midday  in  the  hot  sun,  and  the  fatigue 
which  was  felt  most  severely  late  in  the  afternoon, 
Clarence  Burnham  enjoyed  every  hour.  In  the  per- 
fection of  health,  thrilled  with  the  wondrous  novelty 
of  seeing  such  large  bodies  of  enthusiastic  young 
men,  and  so  many  varieties  of  military  potencies, 


160  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

besides  being  in  a  country  that  he  had  long  wanted 
to  see,  he  felt  that  every  hour  was  a  joy. 

At  one  Korean  city  near  which  the  army  encamped, 
feeling  the  need  of  keeping  the  forces  concentrated, 
it  was  decided  to  wait  for  the  artillery  and  trains  to 
come  up.  Masaro  knowing  this,  and  ever  on  the 
alert  for  adventure,  proposed  to  Clarence  Burnham 
to  go  over  into  a  mountain  near  by,  where  there  had 
formerly  been  a  monastery,  at  which,  in  their  sixteenth- 
century  campaign,  the  Japanese  General  Konishi  and 
his  body-guard  had  had  some  stirring  adventures. 

Clarence  agreed  ;  and  in  company  with  a  foraging 
party  leading  pack-horses,  they  set  out  shortly  after 
noon.  In  a  couple  of  hours  they  reached  the  place 
where,  according  to  the  map,  the  monastery  ought  to 
have  been.  At  the  entrance  of  the  village,  Clarence 
was  horrified  at  two  colossal  scarecrows  in  the  form 
of  large  posts,  carved  to  represent  monsters  or  hide- 
ous human  faces.  They  had  huge  caps  with  ear-flaps, 
and  eyeballs  painted  white,  hideous  broad  teeth  and 
ears,  and  wing-like  expanses  for  arms  made  night- 
mare in  the  daytime.  They  were  the  village  idols,  or 
guardian  spirits. 

Masaro,  with  his  good  map  and  ability  to  speak  a 
little  Korean,  made  inquiries  of  the  people  in  the  vil- 
lage, while  the  foragers  began  to  bargain  for  pigs, 
chickens,  and  grain  —  for  the  Japanese  paid  liberally 
for  all  they  took  from  the  country  people.  The 


FOLLOWING  THE   JAPANESE   ARMY.        161 

villager  agreed  for  a  bit  of  silver  to  take  them  off  into 
the  forest  to  show  them  where  the  monastery  had 
been.  He  was  a  stalwart,  handsome  fellow,  with  rosy 
cheeks,  and,  like  the  usual  Korean,  smoked  a  pipe 
with  a  stem  a  yard  long;  His  well-filled  tobacco 
pouch  hung  in  front  at  his  belt. 

"  I  can  believe  what  the  fellow  tells  us,"  said  Ma- 
saro,  "  for  this  is  not  the  first  time  that  a  forest  has 
grown  over  the  place  where  a  monastery  once  stood. 
You  remember  at  Sunto,  the  capital  of  the  country 
during  the  Middle  Ages,  where  we  camped,  how  the 
ginseng  fields  now  cover  the  place  where  the  streets 
of  a  crowded  city  had  once  been,  and  big  trees  grow 
where  the  houses  of  nobles  once  clustered." 

"  Yes,  the  ruins  showed  what  must  have  been  once, 
for  the  Koreans  certainly  knew  how  to  cut  granite. 
I  was  surprised  at  the  size  of  some  of  the  carved 
stones,  in  the  cracks  of  which  the  bushes  were  grow- 
ing rather  thickly." 

"Well,"  said  Masaro,  "I  rather  think  you  will  see 
something  equally  wonderful  now,  or  pretty  soon. 
Why,  what's  that?"  he  asked  of  the  Korean  guide, 
stopping  and  pointing  to  what  seemed  a  row  of  three 
or  four  obelisks,  one  of  which,  in  spite  of  the  lichens 
growing  on  it,  appeared  to  be  carved  with  the  repre- 
sentation of  a  human  face. 

"Oh,  that,"  said  the  Korean,  "is  a  mir-yek  [stone 
man].  That  goes  back  to  the  days  of  the  Three 


162  IN   THE    MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

Kingdoms  [before  960  A.D.].  My  father  told  me  that 
ages  ago  one  of  the  first  Korean  noblemen,  converted 
to  the  doctrine  of  Buddha,  built  here  a  monastery  to 
educate  young  men  to  go  out  all  over  our  country  and 
preach  the  blessed  Way  of  Buddha ;  but  after  hun- 
dreds of  years,  in  one  of  the  wars  between  the  Tang 
[mediaeval  Chinese]  and  the  Korai  [Korean]  people, 
there  was  a  big  battle  here.  Then  the  monastery, 
which  had  been  turned  into  a  fort,  was  burned,  and 
has  never  been  rebuilt,  but  the  newer  monastery  is 
farther  on." 

They  soon  came  into  view  of  the  giant  figures. 
These  were  three  in  number  and  over  sixty  feet  high. 
They  had  been  cut  out  of  the  solid  rock,  and  one  had 
been  roughly  sculptured  for  about  twenty-five  feet 
from  the  top  downward  into  the  form  of  a  human 
being.  The  features  were  very  distinct,  and  the 
arms,  which  at  the  hands  held  a  rosary,  were  very 
clearly  marked,  despite  the  exposure  and  weathering 
of  probably  more  than  a  thousand  years.  The  other 
two  columns,  square  and  likewise  cut  out  of  the  rock, 
seemed  not  to  have  been  further  touched  by  the 
chisel. 

"  To  think,"  said  Clarence,  "that  in  this  dense  for- 
est there  should  ever  have  been  houses,  and  human 
beings  studying  and  chanting  and  praying." 

The  Korean,  with  a  more  practised  eye,  took  them 
to  where  they  could  see  more  ruins,  in  the  form  of 


FOLLOWING  THE   JAPANESE   ARMY.        163 

cut  stones,  some  plain,  others  carved.  On  the  face 
of  the  rock  were  parts  which  were  marked  by  the 
action  of  fire.  Clarence  made  a  rough  sketch  of  the 
lonely  column  standing  among  the  whispering  trees, 
through  which  the  afternoon  breeze  was  soughing. 
Then  led  by  the  guide,  they  walked  about  a  mile 
farther,  where,  despite  the  undergrowth,  more  traces 
of  a  road,  of  fire,  of  cut  and  carved  stone,  were 
evident. 

Coming  around  the  shoulder  of  the  mountain,  there 
stood  out  before  them,  as  on  a  shelf  of  the  sloping 
rock,  two  more  colossal  stone  figures.  They  were  so 
human-like,  indeed  they  seemed  so  smiling,  apparently, 
as  to  give  Clarence  a  queer  feeling,  and  make  him 
feel  at  first  as  if  it  were  all  a  dream.  Were  these 
the  mountain  genii  of  Japanese  story,  and  was  he  a 
Rip  Van  Winkle  ?  He  almost  felt  for  his  axe. 

The  white  granite,  though  darkened  and  weather- 
stained  in  places,  was  so  light  and  clean-looking  in 
the  eyes  and  on  the  lips  of  the  female  figure  as  to 
give  it  an  expression  almost  like  a  smirk.  Indeed, 
Clarence  actually  thought  of  flirtation.  The  male 
figure  stood  about  forty  feet  high  and  its  head-dress 
was  an  enormous  cap  of  granite  cut  square.  That  of 
the  female  had  on  a  round-pointed  cap  and  was 
about  thirty  feet  high.  Both  were  of  solid  rock  from 
base  to  top,  appearing  to  Clarence,  after  the  first 
surprise  was  over,  exactly  like  the  toy  figures  of 


1 64  IN  THE  MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

painted  wood,  in  which,  above  a  round  solidity  in  the 
lower  parts,  arms,  shoulders,  and  features  were  dis- 
tinguishable. In  Korean  religion  one  stood  for  the 
heaven  and  the  other  for  earth,  or  the  active  and 
positive  male,  and  the  passive  and  negative  female, 
principle. 

"  It's  the  same  as  in  the  Korean  flag,  where  the 
idea  which  runs  all  through  Chinese  philosophy  is 
expressed  by  the  red  and  green  figures  infolded," 
said  Masaro. 

"  Yes,  like  two  commas  in  perpetual  revolution,  or 
continually  embracing  and  tumbling  over  each  other ; 
but  say,  this  archaeology  business  is  pretty  warm 
work,"  said  Clarence;  "  I'm  fearfully  thirsty,  and 
hungry,  too." 

"  Yes,"  said  Masaro,  "  I  think  I  have  advanced 
about  as  far  into  historical  researches  as  I  want  to 
go  to-day.  Let's  inquire  about  rations." 

It  being  now  about  four  or  five  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon, they  retraced  their  steps.  Being  quite  tired, 
they  did  not  get  back  to  the  village  till  about  six, 
finding  that  the  forage  party,  getting  supplies  sooner 
than  they  expected,  had  returned  to  camp. 

"  Let's  get  supper  here  and  stay  all  night,"  said 
Masaro. 

"  Do  you  think  we'd  better  ?  "  said  Clarence.  "  Is 
there  no  danger  ?  " 

"  Oh,  not  a  bit  among  Koreans,"  said  Masaro,  "and 


FOLLOWING  THE   JAPANESE   ARMY.        165 

we  have  permission  from  the  provost  officer  to  be 
away  until  noon  of  to-morrow ;  so  why  not  ?  It  will 
give  us  a  chance  to  see  how  Korean  villagers  spend 
their  time  in  the  evening." 

"Very  good,"  said  Clarence,  not  without  vague 
misgivings,  for  he  wondered  whether  any  Chinese 
fugitives  from  Asan  might  be  near,  or  how  treacherous 
pro-Chinese  natives  might  like  to  see  strangers  in  their 
village. 

The  two  travellers  bargained  with  the  Korean  guide, 
who  seemed  to  be  a  very  intelligent  and  honest  fellow. 
He  agreed  to  give  them  the  best  his  hut  could  afford 
in  the  way  of  a  bed  and  food. 

"  In  one  way,  honored  guests,  you  are  fortunate,  for 
to-night  we  are  to  see  the  long  nose  of  the  father." 

"What  do  you  mean  by  that  ? "  said  Masaro. 

"  Oh,"  said  the  Korean,  "  didn't  you  know  that  ours 
is  a  Christian  village  ?  When  I  was  a  boy,  the  French 
teacher  used  to  visit  us  in  disguise,  putting  on  Korean 
clothes  and  the  mourner's  big  hat  that  wholly  shut 
his  face  from  view.  Only  my  father  and  a  few  in  our 
village  knew  when  he  was  coming.  Since  the  treaties 
have  been  made,  he  comes  and  goes  freely,  and  he  is 
to  be  in  the  village  to-night." 

"That's  good,"  said  Clarence;  "we'll  call  on  him. 
I  can  speak  a  few  words  of  French." 


CHAPTER  XII. 

A  NIGHT'S  ADVENTURE  IN  A  KOREAN  VILLAGE. 

THE  two  young  men  were  invited  by  the  Korean 
into  the  best  room  which  the  poor  three-sided 
and  three-roomed  house  could  afford.     It  was 
a  thatched  building  of  the  ordinary  type,  built  up  by 
first  making  a  structure  of  stone  and  earth  about  four 
or  five  feet  high,  and  on  this  raising  a  framework  of 
timber  with  the  spaces  joined  with  wattle  of  cane, 
plastered  with  mud. 

At  one  end  of  the  principal  part  of  the  humble 
home  was  the  kitchen,  or  cooking  place.  Here  the 
same  fire  which  boiled  the  millet  and  vegetables,  for 
rice  was  not  often  seen  here,  arid  tea  was  unknown, 
passed  in  winter  through  the  flues  which  ran  through 
the  stonework  and  earth,  under  the  floor  made  of 
terra-cotta  or  stone  slabs,  and  out '  to  the  farther 
end,  through  a  rough  shack  or  chimney.  In  summer 
this  artificial  heat  was  turned  off.  The  floor  was 
covered  with  oiled  paper,  and  though  all  the  sur- 
roundings bespoke  what  in  our  country  would  mean 
abject  poverty,  to  the  Korean  they  meant  comfort. 

1 66 


A   NIGHT'S  ADVENTURE.  167 

The  two  young  men  enjoyed  the  novelty.  The  host, 
while  his  wife  and  daughters  prepared  the  meal,  set 
the  table,  and  laid  on  the  simple  dishes  and  chop- 
sticks. 

So  with  good  appetites  to  furnish  the  sauce,  the 
guests  disposed  of  their  simple  supper  of  millet  cakes, 
delicious  broiled  fish  from  the  streams  near  by,  stewed 
beef  from  the  village  butcher's,  and  boiled  rice,  a  lux- 
ury, indeed,  in  a  Korean  village.  For  drink  they  had 
water,  both  plain  and  that  in  which  the  rice  had  been 
boiled,  flavored  with  what  seemed  a  decoction  of 
orange  peel. 

Supper  being  over,  the  young  men  strolled  out  into 
the  village,  to  see  what  there  was  worth  looking  at 
in  this  place  among  the  mountains.  There  life  was 
rather  primitive,  and  the  people  followed  a  round  of 
activities  in  most  respects  exactly  the  same  as  that 
of  their  ancestors  a  thousand  years  ago.  Dogs  were 
plenty,  for  dog  steaks  and  canine  cutlets  formed  reg- 
ular dishes  at  certain  meals. 

When  Clarence  Burnham  learned  this  fact,  a  hor- 
rible suspicion  came  over  him  that  perhaps  for  the 
first  time  in  his  life  he  had  tasted  dog  instead  of  ox 
at  his  supper  time.  His  Korean  host,  quickly  under- 
standing from  Masaro  what  he  was  trying  to  inquire, 
seriously  assured  him  that  the  meat  served  at  supper 
had  stood  upon  hoofs  and  not  upon  paws,  so  the 
American  lad  was  comforted. 


168  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

They  took  a  peep  in  the  stables,  noticing  that  each 
of  the  short,  stumpy  horses  was  tied  up  at  night  to 
the  ceiling  by  a  big  belly-band  and  ropes  that  went 
round  and  under  their  bodies,  and  held  them  to  a 
wooden  bar  across  the  top  of  the  stalls.  The  Korean 
pony  is  a  vicious  beast,  kicking,  biting,  and  squealing 
on  all  occasions,  favorable  or  unfavorable.  Worse 
than  all,  he  is  very  much  inclined,  when  moving  in 
single  file,  to  browse  on  the  flank  of  the  animal  in 
front  of  him,  such  liberty  being  usually  highly 
resented  by  the  animal  grazed  upon,  and  very  apt 
to  result  in  spoiling  the  grazer's  teeth  or  chest.  At 
such  a  time,  and  sometimes  even  without  any  provo- 
cation, the  beast,  incensed  or  for  pure  mischief, 
throws  out  his  hind  hoofs  in  a  way  that  brings  dam- 
age to  anything  within  range.  So  at  night  the  ponies 
are  tied  up,  hanged,  as  it  were,  to  the  ceiling,  yet 
even  then  they  contrive  to  keep  up  a  concert  of 
squeals  that  are  ruinous  to  sleep. 

Clarence  Burnham  was  surprised  to  find  that  the 
bull,  which  in  other  lands  is  generally  associated 
with  terror  and  a  propensity  to  use  its  horns  to  toss 
and  gore,  is  in  Korea  the  household  pet,  beloved  of 
all  the  children.  He  found  in  several  places  the 
little  folks  frolicking  with  the  family  burden-bearer, 
tumbling  and  rolling  over  him,  the  monstrous  brute 
apparently  taking  no  offence,  but  rather  enjoying  the 
fun.  In  another  place  the  little  bull-calf  was  held 


A   NIGHT'S   ADVENTURE.  169 

upon  a  Korean  mother's  lap,  alongside  of  her  baby 
that  was  taking  its  evening  refreshment  from  the 
maternal  bosom,  while  the  little  folks  were  caressing 
their  shaggy  pet. 

When  the  two  young  men  were  near  the  end  of 
the  village,  they  saw  coming  down  the  hilly  street, 
but  at  a  considerable  distance,  what  seemed  to  be  a 
colossal  hedgehog  or  porcupine.  Soon  they  made 
out  the  moving  object  to  be  a  great  ball  of  brush- 
wood furnished  with  legs.  Indeed,  it  suggested  to 
Clarence  the  title  of  a  once  well-known  book,  —  "  The 
Devil  on  Two  Sticks,"  —  but  on  coming  near,  the 
riddle  was  read.  It  was  a  bull,  led  by  a  ring  in  its 
mouth,  and  laden  many  feet  high  and  at  the  sides 
with  material  for  firewood. 

In  the  village  there  was  scarcely  anything  that 
could  be  called  a  shop  or  store,  though  one  man 
made  hats  of  thick  oiled  paper  which  was  varnished 
black,  and  furnished  with  such  a  tremendous  brim 
that  Clarence  wondered  how  the  wearers  could  ever 
dare  to  walk  out  on  a  windy  day,  lest  they  should  be 
blown  away.  He  found  before  he  left  Korea  that 
there  was  a  language  of  hats.  According  to  the 
size,  shape,  style,  color,  or  way  of  being  tied,  one 
might  recognize  a  Korean  as  a  minister  of  state,  a 
merchant,  a  soldier,  a  doctor,  a  bridegroom,  or  a 
mourner,  with  perhaps  a  dozen  other  interpretations. 
In  the  other  shops  they  saw  only  the  commonest 


170  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

articles  of  everyday  use  in  food,  clothing,  and  straw 
footgear  for  man  and  beast. 

It  was  about  eight  o'clock,  when  the  French  priest, 
who  had  come  from  another  village  lying  to  the  east- 
ward, arrived.  He  was  welcomed  with  great  respect 
into  the  house  of  one  of  the  leading  men  of  the  vil- 
lage. On  hearing  that  two  foreigners  were  in  the 
place,  the  Frenchman  with  his  host  made  a  call  upon 
the  American  and  the  Japanese.  With  grave  courtesy 
he  saluted  these  newer  visitors,  who  had  come  into 
a  place  familiar  to  himself.  He  apologized  for  not 
being  able  to  speak  either  Japanese  or  English,  but 
Clarence  put  him  at  his  ease  by  expressing  in  French 
his  pleasure  at  meeting,  in  this  unexpected  manner, 
one  who  was  familiar  with  the  country. 

Monsieur  Hippolyte  was  a  native  of  Boen,  in  the 
province  of  Loire,  France,  and  had  been  in  Korea 
about  fifteen  years.  He  was  a  nephew  of  one  of 
those  French  priests,  who,  in  1866,  during  the  Rus- 
sian "  invasion  scare,"  had  been  tracked  to  their  hid- 
ing-places by  the  sleuth-hounds  of  the  government 
and  taken  to  Seoul.  There,  outside  the  gates  of 
Seoul,  they  were  barbarously  beheaded,  but  not  until 
their  executioners,  playing  the  game  of  mimic  war 
over  their  victims,  pretending  to  fence  with  each 
other,  but  delivering  their  sword  cuts  on  the  victims, 
had  wearied  of  their  sport. 

The   French  "father"  was   able   to  tell  Clarence 


A   NIGHT'S  ADVENTURE.  171 

many  things  about  Korea,  and  more  particularly  con- 
cerning what  both  the  young  men  were  just  then 
rather  nervously  anxious  to  know;  that  is,  whether 
any  fugitive  Chinese  or  hostile  pro-Chinese  Koreans 
were  anywhere  in  that  region. 

The  French  priest  felt  sure  that  there  were  none, 
for  he  knew  the  country  between  the  village  and  the 
Yellow  Sea  quite  well,  and  there  were  no  signs  of 
Chinese  soldiers  anywhere.  As  to  the  other  direc- 
tion, all  seemed  to  take  it  for  granted  that  none  would 
be  anywhere  very  near  the  track  of  the  Japanese  army 
to  the  eastward. 

Asking  permission  to  be  allowed  to  attend  the 
evening  mass,  the  two  young  men  received  a  warm 
invitation  from  the  Catholic  "father"  to  come  at  nine 
o'clock,  by  which  time  all  private  confession  would 
be  over,  and  the  public  worship  would  begin.  Clar- 
ence went  with  his  Japanese  friend,  and  was  ush- 
ered, or  rather  squeezed,  into  one  of  the  three  rooms 
which  make  up  the  average  dwelling  of  the  better 
class  of  villagers ;  for  almost  every  square  foot  of 
standing  room  was  taken  by  a  crowd  of  men,  women, 
and  children,  or,  more  exactly,  by  older  boys  and  girls, 
who  kneeled  reverently  on  the  stone  floor.  Some  of 
the  voices  of  those  forward  made  clear  responses, 
and  it  was  evident  that  the  "father"  had  trained  a 
choir.  The  furnishings  of  the  altar  and  chancel  were 
of  the  simplest  description,  and  mostly  of  native  work- 


172  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

manship,  though  a  brilliant  image  of  the  virgin  was 
evidently  from  France. 

The  touching  service  over,  the  young  men  were 
piloted  to  their  temporary  home  and  lay  down 
to  rest.  The  warmth  of  the  evening  made  the 
Korean  bedclothing  proffered  them  almost  unneces- 
sary, and  the  delicious  mountain  air  was  suffused 
with  a  piny  aroma  that  invited  to  soft  slumber.  Bid- 
ding their  host  good  night,  after  a  little  chat,  they 
were  soon  fast  asleep. 

During  several  hours  Clarence  Burnham  slept 
soundly,  and  then  came  a  dream.  He  thought  he 
was  far  in  the  deep  forest,  and  high  up  on  a  moun- 
tain stood  two  great  images  of  stone.  These  suddenly 
changed  into  creatures  that  had  faces  apparently 
made  up  of  elements  borrowed  from  the  stone  mir- 
yek  and  the  grotesque  village  idols.  Suddenly  their 
stony  lips  moved,  and  one  cried  to  the  other  in  a 
voice  like  a  yell:  — 

"How  shall  we  punish  these  impudent  intruders?" 

The  other  answered,  "Call  the  god  of  the  mountain 
and  ask  him  what  shall  be  done." 

The  larger  of  the  monstrous  creatures,  wearing  a 
square  granite  hat,  turned  round,  looking  up  through 
the  trees,  to  where  a  shaggy,  frowning  precipice  jutted 
out,  as  if  it  were  going  to  fall  and  crush  Clarence 
and  his  companion  to  atoms.  The  stony  monster 
next  uttered  a  sound  between  a  whistle  and  a  yell. 


A   NIGHT'S  ADVENTURE.  173 

Forthwith  there  came  a  crashing  and  tumultuous 
sound,  as  if  a  hundred  tigers  were  leaping  down  from 
the  mountain  top  and  crashing  through  the  forest. 
In  only  one  dream-moment  it  seemed  as  though  the 
tiger  host  began  howling  and  yelling,  more  like  men 
than  tigers,  Clarence  thought.  Then  three  or  four 
of  the  foremost  tigers  seemed  to  leap  forward  in  the 
air  toward  him,  while  the  monster  figures  cried  out, 
"  Kill,  kill,  kill !  "  Just  as  it  seemed  a  dozen  horrible 
claws  were  to  be  buried  in  his  flesh,  Clarence  woke 
up. 

It  was  dark  as  pitch  in  the  room,  but  outside  and 
quite  near,  he  could  hear  angry  men  yelling  as  if 
they  were  seeking  some  one's  life.  He  had  heard  a 
Chinese  yell  once  before,  and  now  recognized  it 
again.  He  listened,  and  certainly  there  were  angry 
yelling  men,  and  they  were  nothing  else  than  Chi- 
nese. A  cold  chill  ran  over  him,  and  for  a  moment 
he  was  paralyzed  with  fright.  Then  he  roused 
Masaro. 

The  Japanese  sprang  up,  saying,  "These  are  not 
Koreans,  they  are  Chinese,  and  they  are  after  us, 
surely." 

It  was  too  true.  After  the  Chinese  army  had 
been  beaten  and  scattered  at  Asan,  their  general 
with  four  thousand  men  drew  off  to  make  his  escape 
to  the  north  and  join  his  countrymen  massed  at  Ping 
Yang.  •  Knowing  that  the  Japanese  were  in  such  full 


174  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

force  at  Seoul,  and  that  they  would  march  straight 
north,  as  well  as  control  the  Ta-Tong  River  from  the 
sea  to  the  city,  the  Chinese  struck  northeastwardly. 
By  the  aid  of  their  own  scouts  and  the  Koreans  that 
favored  them,  they  learned  of  the  Japanese  move- 
ments. In  fact,  here  and  now  was  a  party  of  them 
that  had  kept  close  to  the  Japanese  army's  line  of 
march,  across  which  they  had  come  that  day,  hiding 
successfully  from  the  foraging  party,  which  they  saw 
returning.  From  a  pro-Chinese  Korean,  a  genuine 
Japanese  hater,  they  had  heard  of  the  two  visitors 
in  the  village.  Furthermore,  they  were  hungry  and 
wanted  food. 

So  spurred  on  by  hunger  and  revenge,  they  had 
reached  the  house  where  our  heroes  were,  and,  with- 
out waiting  to  secure  the  food  for  which  they  were 
so  eager,  resolved  to  kill  the  Japanese.  They  were 
just  on  the  point  of  making  a  rush  to  break  down 
the  door,  yelling  horribly  all  the  while.  There  were 
about  fifteen  Chinese  soldiers,  all  told.  They  were 
dressed  in  the  usual  blouse  coats,  with  a  big  round 
mark  on  breast  and  back,  made  up  of  the  ideograph 
meaning  "brave."  They  wore  low-crowned  caps, 
which  brought  their  flat  and  ordinarily  stolid,  but 
now  passion-fired,  faces  into  bold  relief. 

While  four  of  the  biggest  fellows  prepared  to  stave 
in  the  main  door  with  the  butts  of  their  muskets,  the 
others  stood  with  their  guns  commanding  each  minor 


A   NIGHT'S  ADVENTURE.  175 

door,  entrance,  and  window,  kitchen  and  even  smoke 
vent,  so  as  to  shoot  down  the  Japanese,  if  he  attempted 
to  escape.  One,  who  seemed  a  sergeant,  stood  off, 
directing  the  party,  having  given  orders  that  the 
American  should  not  be  hurt,  if  possible,  for  it  was 
not  desirable  to  get  into  trouble  with  a  neutral.  The 
sergeant  was  an  old  veteran,  well  informed  as  to  the 
danger  of  hurting  white  foreigners. 

"  What  shall  we  do  ? "  said  Clarence. 

"Well,"  said  Masaro,  "you're  safe;  you  lie  here. 
They  are  after  me,  for  I  hear  them  calling  for  the 
'  Wo-jin,'  the  Japanese.  You  stay  where  you  are, 
and  I'll  take  my  risks  by  dashing  out  through  to  the 
next  room,  where  the  man's  wife  and  children  sleep. 
Maybe  I  can  get  clear." 

"  No,  you  don't,  old  fellow.  I'll  take  risks  with 
you ;  and  we  must  be  quick  about  it,  too." 

Clarence  and  Masaro  had  buckled  on  their  revolv- 
ers and  drawn  on  their  coats,  when  the  butts  of  the 
muskets  boomed  on  the  street  door. 

"  I  have  an  idea,"  said  Masaro.  "They're  pounding 
on  the  upper  part.  Let  us  both  kneel  down  on  the 
floor  close  to  the  door,  brace  ourselves,  and  be  ready, 
when  the  door  falls  in  at  the  top,  to  catch  hold  of  the 
bottom,  slide  it  forward,  and  then  crawl  out  if  possible 
with  the  door  on  top  of  us.  It  may  be  we  can  knock 
down  some  Chinamen  as  we  push  it  out." 

Quicker   than   can   be   told,  the  two  young  men 


176  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

crouched  on  the  floor  near  the  door,  face  toward  the 
street,  bracing  their  feet  on  an  uneven  stone  in  the 
floor  which  had  its  edge  tilted  up.  In  a  moment  or 
two  the  four  musket  butts,  repeatedly  and  simulta- 
neously striking  the  upper  half  of  the  door,  knocked 
it  in. 

Summoning  all  of  their  strength,  and  bracing  their 
feet  firmly,  Clarence  and  Masaro,  with  all  their  might, 
pushed  the  bottom  part  of  the  door  outward,  giving  it 
also  a  shove  forward.  Its  hinges  wrenched  off,  the 
heavy  door  fell  inward,  and  as  it  did  so,  the  two 
young  men  rushed  it  forward,  jamming  its  edges  on 
the  legs  of  the  Chinese  just  above  their  ankles  and 
tumbling  the  whole  four  inside  the  house,  rolling 
them  in  one  heap,  while  the  two  young  men  nimbly 
extricated  themselves,  and  were  standing  up  safe  in 
the  open  street,  each  with  a  revolver  in  hand.  Much 
to  their  surprise  they  found  no  one  immediately  near 
in  the  dusky  light  save,  a  few  feet  away,  the  Chinese 
sergeant  that  commanded  the  party,  for  the  others 
with  cocked  Mausers  were  watching  the  other  outlets 
of  the  house. 

The  sergeant  was  so  surprised  at  seeing  his  four 
braves  tumble  head  foremost  into  the  house,  with 
their  feet  in  the  air,  that  in  open-mouthed  wonder  he 
seemed  dazed.  He  did  not  even  realize  the  situation, 
as  the  two  lads  crawled  out  and  stood  upright.  When, 
however,  he  recognized  that  they  were  not  his  own 


A   NIGHT'S  ADVENTURE.  177 

soldiers,  but  the  very  ones  he  was  after,  he  was  about 
to  level  his  rifle,  when  a  shot  from  Masaro's  revolver, 
received  in  his  breast,  made  him  sink  heavily  to  the 
ground.  The  report  brought  out  the  other  soldiers  to 
the  front. 

"  This  way,"  said  Masaro.  "  This  is  the  road  we 
came  yesterday,  for  I  marked  it  carefully  before  I  went 
to  bed.  Now  run  as  fast  as  our  legs  can  carry  us." 

Without  hats,  the  young  men  started  on  the  run, 
getting  down  past  the  village  entrance.  Three  shots 
tore  the  air  and  whistled  past  them,  but  did  no  fur- 
ther harm  than  to  knock  the  wooden  flap  off  the 
carved  cap  of  the  hideous  idol  that  had  entered  into 
his  dreams.  To  this  monstrosity,  Clarence,  as  he 
went  by  it  on  the  run,  actually  kissed  his  hand,  in 
token  of  gratitude  for  a  dream  that  had  caused  his 
waking.  Then  the  two  sped  down  the  path  and 
never  ceased  their  rapid  pace  until  they  reached  the 
main  road.  Their  watches  were  not  needed  to  see 
that  it  was  about  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  when 
they  struck  the  trail  of  the  army.  It  was  well  marked 
with  the  ruts  of  the  artillery  wheels  and  the  hoofs  of 
the  cavalry  and  draught  horses. 

They  had  hardly  gone  a  mile  on  the  main  road 
before  they  heard  the  beating  of  hoofs,  and  pretty 
soon  the  jingling  of  the  gear  of  mounted  men. 

"  It's  a  troop  of  our  cavalry,  you  may  be  sure," 
said  Masaro. 


178  IN  THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

"  Yes,  but  it  is  barely  possible  they  may  be  more 
wild  Chinese.  Let's  be  wary." 

When  the  horsemen  were  within  a  few  hundred 
feet,  Masaro  saw  that  they  were  his  own  countrymen. 
Standing  out  in  the  middle  of  the  road,  he  gave  the 
Japanese  cheer,  "  Banzai !  Banzai !  "  (Japan  forever !). 

At  this  the  officer  in  command  cried  "  Halt !  "  and 
sent  one  of  his  men  forward,  who,  with  cocked  re- 
volver, challenged  Masaro.  In  one  minute  he  was 
assured  that  all  was  right,  and  in  another  Masaro 
was  telling  his  story  to  the  lieutenant  commanding. 
The  Japanese  cavalry  were  part  of  the  eyes  and  ears 
of  the  main  army,  and  besides  keeping  the  road  from 
Seoul  open,  making  sure  convoy  to  any  possible  strag- 
gler, soldier,  laborer,  or  wagon,  the  troopers  scoured 
the  country  through.  There  had  been  several  in- 
stances of  skirmishes  with  Chinese  parties  to  the 
eastward,  for  hungry  fugitives  must  perforce  go  on 
foraging  expeditions.  One  of  these  was  now  in  a 
trap. 

Masaro  having  told  his  story,  the  Japanese  officer 
decided  that  here  was  an  opportunity  to  bag  some 
prisoners.  He  accordingly  disposed  of  his  men  at 
some  distance,  both  north  and  south  of  the  road  lead- 
ing from  the  village.  Furthermore,  a  detachment 
of  six  horsemen  were  to  go  up  some  hundred  yards 
toward  the  village  and  then,  turning  off  from  the 
road,  were  to  find  a  place  of  hiding  in  the  woods  a 


A   NIGHT'S  ADVENTURE.  179 

few  score  yards  away  on  one  side,  so  that  the  Chinese, 
returning  eastward  as  they  soon  must,  would  not 
notice  any  horse  tracks  until  the  Japanese  were  able 
to  form  and,  when  necessary,  to  charge  on  them  from 
the  rear. 

"They  are  for  us  as  rats  in  a  cage,"  said  the 
delighted  officer. 

These  clever  arrangements  were  hardly  consum- 
mated before  the  Chinese  appeared  in  sight.  They 
were  one  less  in  number  than  before ;  but  although 
disappointed  of  their  prey,  their  stomachs  were  full, 
and  they  were  well  loaded  with  bags  of  grain, 
chickens,  and  pigs. 

These  latter  were  carried  in  the  usual  Chinese 
fashion.  Each  animal's  hoofs  being  tied  together, 
a  pole  was  thrust  in  between,  so  that  it  could  be 
borne  on  the  shoulders  of  two  men.  Four  pigs 
were  thus  being  transported.  In  order  to  avoid 
danger  of  exposure  through  the  crowing  or  cackling 
of  the  fowls,  or  the  grunting  or  the  squealing  of  the 
pigs,  the  necks  of  the  one  had  been  wrung  and  those 
of  the  other  cut.  Four  of  the  Chinamen  had  strings 
of  chickens  around  their  necks  and  over  their  bodies, 
and  the  leader  was  loaded  with  ducks. 

Meanwhile  five  of  the  Japanese  troopers,  well  con- 
cealed and  holding  their  blankets  over  their  horses' 
muzzles,  guarded  against  any  sound  from  their  beasts. 
When  the  fourth  trooper,  hiding  in  the  bamboo  scrub 


i8o  IN  THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

by  the  roadside,  saw  the  pigs,  chickens,  ducks,  and 
Chinamen  all  pass  by,  he  went  back  to  report  to  his 
comrades.  Mounting  their  horses  quietly,  the  four 
gained  the  road  and  waited  till  the  signal  agreed  upon 
from  below,  three  pistol  shots  in  quick  succession, 
had  been  fired. 

Soon  in  the  clear  morning  air  the  ringing  sound 
came.  Then,  knowing  that  their  comrades  had  de- 
ployed and  partially  surrounded  the  Chinamen,  they 
charged  down  the  hill  with  cheers  of  "  Banzai ! 
Banzai ! "  Though  the  Chinamen  had  slung  off 
their  necklaces  of  ducks  and  chickens,  dumped  the 
carcasses  of  the  pigs  on  the  ground,  and  unslung 
their  rifles,  they  saw  that  they  were  surrounded,  and 
quietly  laid  down  their  arms. 

So  it  came  to  pass  that  the  sub-lieutenant  of  cav- 
alry, with  four  men  detailed  to  keep  guard  over  the 
prisoners,  still  laden  with  spoil,  entered  camp  that 
morning  about  eight  o'clock  with  fourteen  prisoners, 
the  rescued  war  correspondents,  four  pigs,  and  fowls 
that  had  once  quacked,  squawked,  or  crowed  by  the 
dozen.  A'  "Banzai,"  triply  repeated,  was  raised  in 
their  honor  and  welcome.  Then  after  hilarity  that 
ran  through  the  whole  camp,  the  Chinese  were  given 
refreshment  of  hot  tea  and  rice,  and  disposed  of  in 
the  guard-house. 

Before  noon  the  hilarity  had  changed  to  gloom. 
Word  was  brought  in  by  a  handful  of  survivors  that 


A   NIGHT'S   ADVENTURE.  181 

a  lieutenant  with  a  dozen  cavalrymen  had,  a  few  miles 
north  of  the  camp,  been  surrounded  and  cut  to  pieces 
by  superior  numbers  of  the  Chinese,  only  three  or 
four  escaping,  and  these  were  still  missing.  An 
order  was  at  once  issued,  directing  that  seven  wooden 
tablets  duly  inscribed  should  be  carried  to  the  place 
of  the  slaughter  and  erected  to  the  memory  of  the 
dead.  Next  day  Clarence  and  Masaro  were  present 
when  the  army  reached  the  spot,  the  survivors  pointed 
out  the  little  hillock  near  the  road  and  the  pine  wood 
near  the  edge  of  which  the  officer  had  been  slain. 

The  army  was  halted.  Then  took  place  one  of 
those  scenes  which  served  to  reveal  the  secrets  of 
the  burning  patriotism  and  terrible  efficiency  of  the 
Japanese  soldiers.  Holes  were  dug,  and  the  seven 
inscribed  tablets  set  up  at  the  end  of  the  grave 
mounds.  Each  regiment  as  it  passed  was  halted 
for  a  moment,  while  the  soldiers  presented  arms  in 
homage  to  the  dead.  This  was  the  Sho-kon  cere- 
mony, so  often  performed  during  the  war,  making 
frequent  memorial  days,  celebrated  in  greetings  to 
the  spirits  that  had  passed  away.  It  explains  why 
a  Japanese  is  so  ready  to  throw  away  his  life  when 
his  country  demands  it,  for  he  knows  that  his  name 
will  ever  be  remembered  by  his  countrymen. 

The  music  befitted  the  occasion,  for  the  trumpeters 
played  the  inspiring  strains  of  the  Hero  Song  and 
that  celebrating  the  Imperial  Will. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

THE    BATTLE    OF    PING   YANG. 

WITH   many  varied  experiences  and  adven- 
tures, our  heroes,  with  the  army  that  had 
climbed  mountains  and  crossed  rivers,  at 
last  reached  the  blue-flashing  waters  of  the  Ta-Tong 
River  that  drains  northern  Korea. 

The  city  of  Ping  Yang  looked  very  imposing,  with 
its  walls  and  great  double  roofed  gates,  its  temples, 
shrines,  and  wooded  heights.  The  same  engineers 
and  pontoon  corps  that  a  month  before,  near  the 
capital,  had  in  twenty  minutes  thrown  a  bridge  across 
the  Han  River,  now  constructed  a  highway  of  boats 
between  the  shore  and  the  island  of  Cholto,  west  of 
the  city,  so  that  the  main  army  was  soon  across. 

The  plan  was  to  storm  Ping  Yang  and  forts,  on 
the  1 5th  of  September,  simultaneously  from  four 
sides.  The  Combined  Brigade  under  General  Oshima 
was  to  make  the  frontal  attack,  and  to  do  it  so  vigor- 
ously as  to  divert  the  attention  of  the  Chinese  from 
other  points.  At  the  same  time,  the  Japanese  column 
from  the  north,  that  from  the  east,  and  that  from 

182 


THE   BATTLE   OF   PING   YANG.  183 

the  south  were  to  strike  with  equal  promptness  and 
energy.  On  the  I2th  and  I3th  there  were  a  good 
many  skirmishes  and  much  artillery  fire ;  but  although 
the  Chinese  wasted  much  ammunition  on  the  I4th, 
the  Japanese  made  little  or  no  reply.  The  twenty- 
seven  Chinese  forts,  each  with  parallel  trenches  and 
a  deep  moat,  were  ten  feet  high  and  very  steep,  being 
well  manned  and  supplied  with  cannon.  Unless 
breached,  ladders  might  be  necessary  to  storm  them. 

Not  to  make  our  own  accounts  tedious  by  too 
many  details,  let  us  see  how  the  two  correspondents, 
and  especially  Clarence  Burnham,  described  this, 
one  of  the  greatest  and  most  decisive  battles  in 
modern  times. 

In  his  syndicate  letter,  after  writing  of  the  march 
between  Seoul  and  Ping  Yang,  describing  the  Jap- 
anese in  camp,  and  paying  tribute  to  their  splendid 
discipline,  Clarence  continued  :  — 

"  Let  me  picture  to  you  the  situation  in  and  around 
this  ancient  city  of  eighty  thousand  people,  in  which, 
according  to  tradition,  Ki-ja,  the  founder  of  Ko- 
rean civilization,  first  made  his  seat  of  government, 
1 1 22  B.C.  Ping  Yang,  in  my  view,  is  shaped  like  an 
ordinary  oval  white  potato,  with  two  gates  on  the 
north,  two  on  the  south  side  (which  lies  two  miles 
and  a  half  along  the  river),  and  one  each  at  the  east 
and  the  west. 

"  In  the  native  eye,  the  city  is  shaped  like  a  boat 


184  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

and  therefore  there  are  no  wells  within  the  walls. 
Do  you  ask  why  ?  According  to  superstition,  if  you 
dug  wells,  making  a  hole  in  the  ground,  the  boat 
would  sink !  So,  would  you  believe  it,  most  of  the 
water  is  brought  into  the  city  in  old  American  petro- 
leum tins !  The  city  is  now  empty  of  its  people, 
and  only  soldiers  are  in  it. 

"  The  point  to  which  our  eyes,  as  war  correspond- 
ents, were  from  the  first  directed,  was  the  Peony  Mount, 
from  the  top  of  which  one  could  see  down  and  into 
the  whole  city  of  Ping  Yang,  along  its  greatest  length, 
raking  it,  as  it  were,  with  an  opera  glass.  The  situa- 
tion also  commanded  the  river  and  surrounding  coun- 
tries. One  could  see  into  the  forts,  and  most  of  the 
military  operations  were  within  view.  Could  the 
Mikado's  army  once  gain  this  key  to  the  whole  situa- 
tion, they  would  win  easy  victory,  for  their  artillery 
could  then  command  the  forts  and  the  city  below. 
All  this  I  was  told  by  my  comrade  Masaro,  long  be- 
fore the  battle.  Hence  it  was  that,  from  the  first 
firing,  I  was  eager  to  see  the  Japanese  capture  this 
natural  stronghold,  so  that  I  might  have  the  best 
view. 

"On  the  morning  of  the  I5th  this  was  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  Japanese  army :  the  Combined  Brigade, 
under  General  Oshima  on  the  south  side  of  the  river, 
occupied  the  west  and  southwest  approaches.  There 
were  no  fewer  than  five  earthworks  guarding  the 


THE   BATTLE   OF   PING  YANG.  185 

Chinese  bridge  of  boats  across  the  river  at  the  ordi- 
nary ferry,  while  four  other  large  forts  guarded  the 
western  side. 

"  The  main  body  under  General  Nodzu,  having  al- 
ready crossed  on  pontoons,  was  on  the  north  side  of 
the  city.  Before  they  could  get  at  the  gates,  or  enter, 
they  must  pass  the  fire  on  the  right  of  a  big  fort  on 
the  top  of  a  hill,  and  the  four  forts  near  the  city, 
which  guarded  from  the  right-hand  side  the  bridge 
of  boats,  over  which  the  Chinese  could  get  ammuni- 
tion and  reinforcements,  to  resist  the  attack  of  the 
Combined  Brigade. 

"Eastward,  where  were  the  strongest  of  all  the 
forts,  six  or  seven  in  number,  was  the  division  that 
had  marched  from  Gensan  on  the  eastern  seacoast. 
A  little  southward,  in  a  direct  line  east  of  the  city, 
was  another  division  under  General  Tatsumi.  I  was 
so  fortunate  as  to  be  with  the  latter  body. 

"  It  was  not  a  *  walk  over '  for  the  Japanese,  by  any 
means.  The  Combined  Brigade  under  General  Os- 
hima  had  a  terrible  time  of  it  on  the  I5th.  The 
attack  began  before  daylight,  at  half-past  four. 

"  The  Chinese  artillery  opened,  but  with  much  poorer 
aim  than  that  of  their  foe.  The  Chinese  riflemen  did 
better.  The  fugitives  from  Asan,  jealous  to  redeem 
their  reputation,  had  been  put  in  the  front.  Armed 
with  their  Mauser  repeating  rifles,  they  made  it  tre- 
mendously hot  for  the  soldiers  of  the  Mikado,  who 


1 86  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

now  on  open  ground  and  in  daylight  were  exposed  to 
the  whole  range  of  Chinese  fire.  Nevertheless,  the 
Japanese  made  a  terrific  charge,  capturing  the  out- 
works of  the  two  first  of  the  four  forts.  They  planted 
their  flag  on  the  earthen  walls  and  expected  to  win 
the  whole  line  and  area  within. 

"  In  this  they  were  doomed  to  disappointment,  for 
that  day  at  least. 

"The  Chinese,  being  well  supplied  with  ammuni- 
tion, were  able  from  the  centre  of  the  fort  to  pour  in 
a  withering  rifle  fire.  The  Japanese  artillery,  though 
the  gunners  tried  hard,  could  not  destroy  the  bridge 
by  which  the  Chinese  received  fresh  men  and  ammu- 
nition, while  the  Japanese  cartridge-boxes  were  empty. 
With  the  cheer  of  '  Banzai !  Banzai ! '  the  brave  little 
fellows  charged  up  the  earthworks,  but  they  were  too 
steep  and  high  for  them.  They  retreated  with  heavy 
loss,  exhausted  and  hungry,  for  they  had  had  no  food 
since  three  o'clock,  and  it  was  now  as  late  as  two 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  So  the  outlook  on  the 
south  side  was  decidedly  dark. 

"  At  our  position  on  the  eastern  side,  we  could  not 
have  been  more  fortunate,  for  the  two  divisions, 
though  marching  from  points  so  far  afield,  had  con- 
verged together  and  were  within  helping  distance  of 
each  other,  while  acting  as  two  hammers  striking  at 
once.  While  Oshima's  brigade  was  so  fully  occupy- 
ing the  Chinese  on  the  southwest,  our  advance  not 


THE  BATTLE  OF  PING  VANG.         1$; 

being  expected  so  soon,  we  were  able  on  the  I4th 
to  occupy  a  hill  superbly  situated  and  only  sixteen 
hundred  yards  from  the  outermost  forts  on  the  left. 
Then  those  '  mountain  guns/  on  which  I  used  to  see 
the  soldiers  in  Tokio  spending  so  many  hours  and 
hard  work,  were  dragged  up  to  the  crest  of  the  hill 
and  made  ready  for  the  terrible  work  of  the  next 
day. 

"  The  attack  began  furiously  at  daylight.  Although 
the  Chinese  Mauser  balls  came  like  a  storm,  yet 
our  shrapnel  shells  were  dropped  so  accurately,  right 
inside  the  forts,  that  one  was  captured  by  a  charge 
at  half-past  seven  and  the  third  at  eight  o'clock.  The 
second  was  on  Peony  Mount. 

"  By  this  time  the  fifth  fort  on  the  east  had 
been  taken.  With  the  cannon  of  the  Japanese  belch- 
ing out  their  shot,  shell,  and  shrapnel  balls  on  both 
sides  of  the  river  and  three  sides  of  the  city,  the 
Chinese  were  utterly  bewildered.  The  whole  of  the 
Japanese  forces  were  now  converged  on  the  two 
remaining  forts,  the  smaller  of  which  was  quickly 
abandoned  by  its  garrison. 

"  In  order  to  take  the  stronghold  on  Peony  Mount, 
General  Tatsumi  ordered  one  regiment  to  move  by 
a  frontal  attack,  while  another  advanced  in  the  rear 
from  fort  number  three,  also  from  fort  number  five 
another  regiment  was  started  from  the  opposite 
direction,  thus  making  three  lines  of  approach  and 


i88  IN  THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

offence.  The  Japanese  artillery,  which  had  been 
busy  at  trying  to  breach  the  walls  of  the  city,  was  sig- 
nalled to  concentrate  fire  on  the  Peony  Mount.  This 
was  handsomely  done,  the  shells  dropping  inside  the 
fort,  making  it  too  hot  for  flesh  and  blood  to  stand. 
The  Chinese  were  started  on  the  run,  and  at  half -past 
eight  the  famous  citadel  was  entered  amid  three  ring- 
ing cheers  of  '  Banzai !  Banzai !  '  Then  the  sun  flag 
was  hoisted,  and  unfurled  proudly  to  the  breeze." 

From  this  point  let  us  quote  from  another  of 
Clarence  Burnham's  letters  :  — 

"  Masaro  and  I  had  taken  up  our  positions  early  on 
the  morning  of  September  i5th,  behind  the  Japanese 
batteries  on  the  crest  of  a  hill.  Climbing  one  of  the 
pine  trees,  we  were  able,  in  the  bright  morning  sun, 
to  see  a  large  part  of  what  was  going  on,  especially 
the  Chinese  riflemen  on  the  walls  of  the  fort,  and 
the  shells  which  dropped  and  exploded  among  them. 
Just  as  soon  as  the  Chinese  began  to  show  their 
backs  and  get  out  and  away  from  Peony  Mountain, 
we  ran  nearly  all  the  way  down  the  hill  so  as  to 
quickly  get  into  the  captured  fort  and  mount  the  top 
of  the  ramparts,  from  which  we  could  see  what  went  on 
at  the  Gemmu  gate,  now  the  focus  of  fire  and  valor. 

"  It  opened  into  the  city,  and  here  we  saw  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  episodes  of  the  war.  The  walls 
of  Ping  Yang  are  about  twenty  feet  high  and  very 
thick.  At  intervals  are  gateways,  which  are  built  in 


THE   BATTLE   OF  PING  YANG.  189 

the  form  of  squares  projecting  out  from  the  line  of 
wall,  making  a  place  of  unusual  strength.  The 
Gemmu  gate  had  an  archway  of  stone,  like  a  tunnel, 
twice  the  height  of  a  man,  at  the  end  of  which  was 
the  heavy  gate  itself,  made  of  the  stoutest  timbers. 
Crowning  the  whole  gateway  edifice  was  a  pagoda- 
like  tower,  rising  aloft  with  recurved  roofs,  and  tiled 
in  the  usual  Korean  fashion.  From  behind  the  ram- 
part on  the  wall  and  in  the  tower,  by  both  direct  and 
flank  fire,  the  Chinese  kept  blazing  away  with  their 
Mausers.  It  was  at  this  time  that  the  Japanese  loss 
of  life  was  fearful.  Despite  their  bravery,  they 
began  to  waver.  As  the  ramparts  were  proof 
against  rifle  balls,  it  was  evident  that  little  could  be 
done  until  the  Japanese  artillery  was  brought  up 
from  the  rear  and  arranged  on  the  earthworks  of  the 
lately  captured  fort. 

"  All  this  required  time.  Meanwhile,  it  looked  like 
a  general  repulse  at  the  big  gateway,  when  suddenly 
the  situation  was  redeemed  by  an  act  of  heroic,  al- 
most romantic,  valor,  showing  how  rich  in  resources 
is  the  Japanese  soldier. 

"  A  lieutenant,  raging  with  shame,  called  for  volun- 
teers to  force  the  gate,  or  if  necessary  to  climb  the 
wall  and  draw  the  bolt  from  the  inside.  He  rushed 
forward  under  the  terrible  sleet  of  balls,  followed  by 
a  score  or  two  of  his  men ;  but  when  once  under  the 
stone  arch,  only  twelve  men  were  alive  with  the  de- 


190  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

voted  lieutenant.  They  found  the  timbers  were  too 
stout  to  be  forced,  so  the  leader  ordered  his  men  to 
back  out  of  the  arch  and  up  the  very  face  of  the 
wall. 

"  It  seemed  perfectly  absurd  that,  while  hundreds  of 
Chinese  marksmen  on  the  front  and  flanks  of  the 
gateway  walls  were  busily  shooting  down  all  the 
men  that  they  could  see  a  few  yards  ahead  of  them, 
they  should  not  notice  or  forget  that,  directly  under 
their  very  noses,  were  a  lot  of  men  climbing  like 
monkeys  up  the  perpendicular  wall.  They  were 
literally  'shinning'  up  the  corner  of  the  adjoining 
walls  by  sticking  their  hands  and  feet  in  the  crevices 
between  the  stones.  Possibly  the  Chinese  thought 
that  all  the  men  who  had  rushed  forward  hoping  to 
get  into  the  arch  to  strike  at  the  gate  from  the  out- 
side, had  been  killed,  and  so  forgot  them. 

"A  soldier  named  Harada  had  called  out,  'Who'll 
be  the  first  on  the  wall  ? '  and  had  led  the  men  in  the 
scramble.  Once  on  top,  three  or  four  of  the  dozen 
nimble  fellows  jumped  down  inside  the  wall  and, 
rushing  to  the  gate,  got  in  a  hand-to-hand  fight. 
With  sword  and  bayonet  they  killed  three  and  drove 
away  the  other  Chinese  guards.  While  the  others 
that  had  climbed  fought  on  the  walls,  the  gate- 
openers  plied  their  task.  This  was  not  very  easy, 
for  its  two  leaves  were  barricaded  on  the  inside  with 
logs  and  stones  which  had  to  be  pulled  away. 


THE   BATTLE   OF   PING  YANG.  191 

"  While  the  defenders  on  the  walls  kept  back  the 
enemy  by  their  rifles,  using  both  ends,  the  muzzle 
for  firing  and  the  butt  for  a  club,  Harada,  stout  and 
strong,  cleared  away  the  rubbish,  and  then  broke 
open  the  big  iron  lock,  a  foot  long,  with  a  heavy 
stone.  In  a  moment  more,  with  a  wrench,  a  pull, 
and  a  push,  the  great  gate,  creaking  on  its  hinges, 
was  wide  open  to  the  gaze  of  the  astonished  Japan- 
ese on  the  outside,  who  now  swarmed  in  under  the 
arch  and  through  the  gate,  driving  the  Chinese  be- 
fore them  like  chaff.  Thus  Ping  Yang  was  entered. 

"  The  admirably  posted  Japanese  artillery  was  now 
playing  upon  the  yet  untaken  forts,  and  kept  the 
Chinese  from  recapturing  the  Gemmu  gate.  It  was 
from  this  time  forth  that  the  Chinese,  utterly  de- 
moralized, made  sorties  at  other  gates,  that  meant 
only  destruction  for  themselves  and  victory  for  the 
Japanese.  The  fight  and  the  flight  were  alike  vain, 
for  having  lost  their  brave  leader,  General  Tso,  they 
could  do  nothing.  Of  this  leader,  the  bravest  and 
best  in  the  Chinese  army,  let  us  now  tell. 

"  General  Tso  had  always  been  an  upright  and 
honest  officer,  as  well  as  brave  man  —  a  combination 
of  qualities  not  usually  meeting  in  one  Chinese 
officer.  He  had  left  Mukden  with  five  thousand 
men.  At  a  council  of  war  the  day  before,  in  Ping 
Yang,  September  15th,  the  Chinese  generals  advised 
a  retreat,  but  Tso  indignantly  demanded  that  there 


192  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

should  be  a  fight.  He  was  the  moving  spirit  in  the 
brave  defence  made  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  city. 
During  the  day  he  was  wounded  several  times,  but 
tearing  his  clothes  into  strips,  he  bound  up  his 
wounds  and  fought  on.  On  that  fatal  afternoon  he 
led  out  his  troops  through  the  Gate  of  the  Seven 
Stars  and  down  the  steep  zigzag  descent  below  it  to 
the  plain.  It  was  about  three  hundred  yards  from 
the  gate  that  he  met  his  death.  Some  of  his  men 
took  up  his  body  to  remove  it,  but  fell  under  the 
rain  of  bullets.  In  the  awful  slaughter  which  ensued 
the  body  was  lost  beyond  recognition." 

The  writer  of  this  story  would  add  that  to-day,  on 
the  spot  where  General  Tso  is  believed  to  have 
fallen,  there  ris.es  a  neat  obelisk  with  a  railing  around 
it.  On  one  face  is  an  inscription  which  reads  "  Place 
of  the  death  of  General  Tso  "  and  on  the  other  side, 
"  Killed  in  battle  with  the  Japanese  troops  at  Ping 
Yang."  Thus  the  Japanese,  in  high  admiration  of 
their  bravest  foe,  have  commemorated  his  valor. 
Clarence  Burnham's  letter  continued  :  — 
"  The  main  body  of  the  army  was  posted  on  the 
north  of  the  city,  guarding  two  roads  and  command- 
ing three  city  gates.  The  attack  here  began  later  in 
the  day,  not  till  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when 
the  whole  line  of  artillery  began  to  roar.  Making  a 
sortie  from  one  of  the  gates,  a  troop  of  two  of  the 
splendid  Tartar  cavalry,  under  the  brave  Chinese 


THE  BATTLE  OF  PING  YANG. 


THE   BATTLE   OF   PING   YANG.  193 

General  Tso,  hoped  to  fall  with  the  effect  of  surprise 
on  a  detachment  of  Japanese  infantry  which  did  not 
suspect  their  presence. 

"The  advancing  Japanese  infantry  did  not  see 
the  Tartar  cavalry,  owing  to  a  swell  of  ground ;  but 
the  artillerists  catching  sight  of  them,  directed  their 
guns  upon  them,  thus  calling  the  attention  of  the 
infantry.  The  result  was  such  an  awful  cannon  and 
rifle  fire  in  front  and  flank  that  only  seven  or  eight 
escaped.  The  rest  were  in  a  few  moments  lying  dead. 
I  could  hardly  believe  my  own  eyes  in  first  seeing  a 
gallant  squadron  of  picturesque  horsemen,  in  all  the 
pomp  of  war,  gayly  moving  along  with  flashing  sabres, 
and  then,  in  less  than  five  minutes,  total  disappear- 
ance, only  the  ground  strewn  with  horses  and 
corpses  of  men.  From  the  prisoners  they  learned 
who  and  what  these  cavalrymen  were. 

"  I  was  told  of  another  sortie  of  a  thousand  more 
cavalry  escaping  from  behind  the  forts,  or  perhaps 
ready  to  make  a  charge.  They  had  just  issued  from 
the  city  gate,  when  the  murderous  fire  of  the  Japanese 
shrapnel  and  rifles  threw  them  into  confusion,  so  that 
a  part  rode  back  into  the  forts  from  which  they  had 
come.  Others,  blinded  and  desperate,  rode  along  a 
path  by  a  dry  moat,  which  was  soon  choked  with  dead 
men  and  horses. 

"On  the  southwest  the  Combined  Brigade,  after 
food  and  refreshment  through  resting,  set  fire  to  the 


194  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

houses  near  the  fort,  and  then  the  infantry  by  one 
determined  charge  drove  out  the  Chinese  garrison. 

"About  half-past  four  in  the  afternoon,  the  Chinese 
firing  suddenly  ceased,  and  a  white  flag  was  hoisted 
above  the  walls.  Fearing  treachery,  General  Ta- 
tsumi  at  first  paid  no  attention  to  the  signal,  holding 
back  his  men  from  entering  the  city.  Everything 
continued  silent,  however,  and  so  a  detachment  passed 
in  through  the  Gemmu  gate,  and  some  officers  with  a 
picked  body  of  soldiers  went  on  to  the  entrance  of 
the  inner  castle,  where  the  Chinese  officers  were 
ready  to  negotiate  the  surrender. 

"At  that  moment  the  clouds,  which  for  some  time 
past  had  been  gathering  blackness,  burst  in  a  drench- 
ing shower.  The  Chinese  officers  pleaded  that, 
though  they  surrendered  themselves  prisoners,  yet 
since  the  roll  could  not  be  called  in  the  rain,  the  ca- 
pitulation should  be  put  off  until  the  next  day.  The 
Japanese  agreed,  though  still  fearful  that  during  the 
night  the  Chinese  would  try  to  escape. 

"These  suspicions  were  only  too  well  founded  and 
prepared  for  by  the  Japanese.  About  nine  o'clock, 
all  the  unwounded  men,  carrying  their  arms,  began 
to  stream  out  of  the  Potong  gateway  into  the  low 
plain  girdled  with  hills  and  intersected  by  the  great 
road  leading  into  Manchuria.  But,  alas,  for  the  un- 
truthfulness  and  treachery  of  China,  her  deep-seated 
diseases  !  Alas,  for  civilization  and  humanity ! 


THE   BATTLE   OF   PING  YANG.  195 

"  The  wary  Japanese  were  ready.  A  regiment  of 
riflemen  had  been  posted  to  intercept  the  flight  of 
the  fugitives,  and  during  all  the  long  night  of  horrors 
there  was  less  a  battle  than  a  massacre.  Other  Jap- 
anese regiments  came  up  and  *  girdled  the  plain  with 
a  ring  of  fire.'  Though  occasionally  the  Chinese 
fought  with  the  energy  of  despair,  and  tried  to  break 
through  the  lines  of  their  foes,  they  availed  nothing 
against  discipline  and  cool  valor.  The  moonlight 
only  served  the  gunners  to  take  better  aim.  It  is 
probable  that  two  thousand  men  were  slaughtered, 
besides  large  numbers  of  bulls  and  horses,  on  that 
awful  night.  It  has  left  a  scar  on  my  memory  for- 
ever. 

"I  was  so  fortunate  as  to  march  into  the  city  with 
two  divisions  from  the  eastern  side,  for  the  real 
glory  of  the  capture  of  this  city  belongs  to  that  part 
of  the  army,  though  their  work  was  made  easy  by 
the  stubborn  bravery  of  the  men  in  the  Combined 
Brigade. 

"I  cannot  tell  you  what  a  dreadful  scene  I  witnessed 
after  the  evacuation.  The  houses  were  empty,  bat- 
tered, and  broken  by  shells,  and  dead  bodies  were 
lying  around  everywhere. 

"  One  pleasant  episode  was  in  the  fact  that  the  main 
division  started  at  an  hour  before  daylight,  on  the 
i6th,  to  what  they  supposed  would  be  the  final  assault. 
Somewhat  to  their  surprise  they  found  no  resistance, 


196  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

but,  entering  by  the  western  gate,  realized  that  the 
city  was  already  occupied  by  their  comrades  from 
the  east,  and  knew  from  their  cheers  that  the  fighting 
was  over. 

"As  for  the  Combined  Brigade,  a  messenger  on 
horseback  brought  them  the  news  that  the  city  was 
taken  and  the  enemy  had  fled.  Immediately  after 
breakfast,  they  also  marched  into  the  city  through 
the  southern  gate.  Every  division  shouted  '  Banzai ! ' 
until  the  men  were  hoarse.  Then  in  a  citadel  of  the 
castle,  the  united  host  raised  one  tremendous  cheer. 
The  welkin  rang  with  echoes,  and  the  mountains  gave 
back  the  sound,  as  though  the  hosts  of  Konishi's 
warriors  had  risen  from  the  dust  of  three  centuries 
to  join  in  the  paean  of  victory. 

"Now  that  the  battle  is  over,  it  seems  wonderful 
to  look  on  the  spoil  which  is  being  collected.  In 
the  first  place,  the  Japanese  are  surprised  to  find 
the  forts  so  finely  built.  The  Chinese  must  have 
profited  well  by  their  training  under  German  en- 
gineers. In  their  hasty  flight  they  left  everything 
behind.  The  Mikado's  soldiers  feel  that  the  de- 
feat of  their  comrades  of  three  centuries  ago  is 
avenged. 

"Among  the  trophies  are  thirty-five  fine  cannon,  a 
thousand  rifles  of  the  best  sort,  enormous  stores  of 
ammunition,  tents,  horses,  money,  and  every  kind  of 
detail  that  you  can  imagine  in  clothing  and  equip- 


THE   BATTLE   OF   PING  YANG.  197 

ment.  There  are  umbrellas,  fans,  coats,  hats,  water- 
proof hat  covers,  swords,  belts,  cartridge  boxes,  and 
pretty  much  everything  that  a  man  might  throw 
away  when  in  a  hurry  and  in  a  panic  of  fear.  Thou- 
sands of  sleeves  torn  hastily  from  the  shoulder  are 
among  the  endless  variety  of  sundries,  while  drums 
and  trumpets  in  stacks,  carts,  bulls,  and  horses  are 
numerous. 

"  Probably  there  have  been  as  many  as  four  thou- 
sand Chinese  killed  and  maimed,  counting  those 
slightly  wounded  who  have  escaped.  The  Japanese 
surgeons  report  of  their  own  men  162  killed,  438 
wounded,  and  33  missing,  the  heaviest  losses  being 
in  the  Combined  Brigade.  I  wonder  whether  this 
Chinese  army  will  ever  appear  again  as  one  organi- 
zation. I  very  much  doubt  it.  The  temple  of  the 
god  of  war  is  now  a  hospital,  for  the  wounded  were 
at  once  taken  care  of.  It  is  beautiful  to  see  the 
promptness,  neatness,  and  order  which  prevails. 
Immediately  after  seeing  to  their  own,  the  Japanese 
began  to  collect  all  the  Chinese,  in  any  way  hurt, 
though  not  until  after  many  of  these  had  already 
died  of  their  wounds." 

Scarcely  had  the  letters  of  the  young  war  corre- 
spondent been  written  and  posted,  the  one  to  Tokio 
and  the  other  to  New  York,  than  electrifying  news 
came  in  from  the  sea.  The  tremendous  victory  of 
Japan's  fleet  over  that  of  China  off  the  mouth  of  the 


198  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

Yalu  River,  fought  on  the  i;th  day  of  September, 
added  a  new  glow  to  the  joy  of  triumph  on  land. 

"  Banzai!  Banzai !  "  was  the  shout  in  every  camp, 
with  the  added  cry,  "  On  to  Peking !  "  by  land  and 
sea.  So  the  enthusiastic  hosts  of  Japan  set  their 
faces  toward  the  dragon  throne. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  FALCON  AT  THE  MASTHEAD. 

ONLY  a  few  days  were  granted  to  the  main 
body  of  the  Japanese  army  for  rest  at  Ping 
Yang.      Then  the  order  was   given   to  the 
Mikado's  soldiers  to  set  their  faces   northward,  to 
pursue  the  enemy  into  China. 

The  route  would  be  in  this  direction  for  about  fifty 
miles.  Then  from  Anjiu  the  road  ran  westward 
along  the  Yellow  Sea  to  Wiju  on  the  Yalu  River. 
When  this  Oriental  Rubicon  was  crossed,  the  lads  of 
Japan  would  be  in  the  Dragon  Empire,  where  they 
must  face,  besides  the  armed  force,  snow  and  frost 
and  the  rigors  of  a  winter  campaign.  Fortunately, 
however,  they  would  find  better  roads,  for  the  Chi- 
nese, in  order  to  get  their  artillery  into  the  peninsula, 
had  mended  and  greatly  improved  the  Manchurian 
and  Korean  highways. 

Now  that  the  Chinese  sea  power  had  been  prac- 
tically annihilated,  great  fleets  of  transports  were  on 
the  way  from  Japan  to  the  Yalu,  loaded  with  winter 
clothing  and  comforts  for  the  soldiers. 

199 


200  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

At  two  or  three  places  on  the  way  to  China  there 
were  favorable  situations  for  defence  where  the  van- 
quished Chinese  army  might  have  made  a  stand ;  but 
the  poor  fellows  were  too  much  demoralized  and 
were  too  manifestly  lacking  in  brave  leaders  to  at- 
tempt any  such  thing.  So  one  by  one  the  positions 
were  given  up.  The  first  resistance  the  Japanese 
were  to  encounter  would  be  on  Chinese  soil,  beyond 
the  Yalu,  in  the  province  of  Shinking,  where  is  the 
city  of  Mukden,  and  in  which  are  the  tombs  and 
treasures  of  the  dynasty  that,  since  1644,  has  held 
the  dragon  throne. 

The  destruction  of  the  Chinese  fleet  simplified 
greatly  the  problem  of  transportation.  Armies  and 
supplies  could  now  be  sent  from  Japan  by  sea  instead 
of  through  Korea,  yet  a  considerable  garrison  must 
for  a  while  be  left  at  Ping  Yang. 

Meanwhile  the  poor  Koreans  were  homeless  and 
impoverished.  Their  friends,  the  Chinese  protectors 
and  the  Japanese  deliverers,  had  desolated  their 
beautiful  city,  and  left  it  and  the  roads  to  China 
blackened  with  corpses.  Though  there  had  been  no 
actual  fighting  within  the  walls  except  at  the  Gemmu 
gate,  yet  before  the  winter  was  over  about  four-fifths 
of  the  houses  were  destroyed,  and  the  streets  and 
alleys  choked  with  rubbish.  The  slopes  of  the  hills 
were  covered  with  ruins,  and  where  were  once  homes 
were  now  only  fragments,  blackened  and  hideous. 


THE   FALCON   AT  THE   MASTHEAD.        201 

The  soldiers  at  first  occupying  the  city  gave  it  up  to 
loot,  tore  out  the  posts  of  the  houses  and  the  other 
woodwork  for  fuel,  lighted  fires  on  the  house  floors, 
careless  whether  the  houses  burned,  as  they  often  did. 
After  the  first  few  days  there  was,  in  the  main,  quiet 
with  good  order,  and  all  stores  obtained  in  the  town 
or  neighborhood  were  scrupulously  paid  for. 

Nevertheless,  with  all  their  praiseworthy  attempts 
to  carry  on  the  war  according  to  the  rules  of  civilized 
warfare,  the  Japanese  failed  unaccountably  to  do  what 
they  owed  to  the  Koreans  to  do,  and  what  would  have 
been  better  for  their  own  sanitary  safety  had  they 
done  it.  They  left  the  Chinese  corpses  in  the  fields 
and  roads  and  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  city  unburied, 
so  that  before  white  skeletons  came,  the  blackening 
decomposition  which  poisoned  the  air  had  sent  hun- 
dreds of  brave  men  to  lingering  death  by  typhus 
fever. 

To-day,  while  a  superb  monolith  rises  on  a  hill 
within  the  city  walls,  in  memory  of  the  Japanese  sol- 
diers killed  in  battle,  there  also  stand  in  the  military 
cemetery  at  Chemulpo  the  inscribed  square  stones 
over  hundreds  of  brave  fellows  who  died  needlessly 
of  disease. 

On  the  threshold  of  the  twentieth  century,  even 
after  crops  of  grain  have  been  repeatedly  raised  on 
the  fields  near  the  city,  there  lie  on  the  surface  and 
are  turned  up  by  the  plough  the  evidences  of  battle 


202  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

in  metal  and  wood,  besides  in  skull  and  pelvis,  bone 
and  rib,  the  white  tokens  of  war's  results. 

Clarence  Burnham  and  his  friend  Masaro  remained 
for  several  weeks  in  Ping  Yang  after  the  battle. 
They  went  through  its  streets  and  visited  whatever 
place  or  building  of  note  that  opened  windows,  as  it 
were,  into  the  history  of  the  people  over  whom  Japan 
and  China  had  come  to  blows.  They  went  often  to 
the  temple  of  the  god  of  war  where  the  Japanese 
wounded  lay,  to  help  the  brave  lads  while  away 
tedious  hours. 

They  visited  reverently  the  tomb  and  altar  reared 
in  honor  of  Kija,  ancestor  of  Confucius,  whom  the 
Koreans  proudly  called  the  founder  of  their  nation. 
There  the  sculptured  tortoises,  carved  stone  animals, 
chiselled  drums  and  flat  stone,  now  chipped  and 
broken,  the  images  and  lanterns  scarred  with  bullets, 
and  the  damaged  woodwork  of  the  temple  near  by, 
showed  that  here  had  been  the  centre  of  a  deadly 
fight,  while  dark  stains  upon  the  wooden  floor  showed 
where  the  Japanese  wounded  lay.  Out  on  the  hills 
the  pine  trees  were  splintered  and  their  branches 
broken  by  bullets.  The  beautiful  pavilion  at  the 
angles  of  the  city  walls  was  shattered,  and  shards  of 
iron  were  sticking  in  the  pillars  and  richly  carved 
woodwork. 

Interesting  as  all  this  was,  the  horrors  of  that 
battle-field,  both  on  the  eastern  and  the  northern  side 


THE   FALCON    AT   THE   MASTHEAD.        203 

of  the  city,  were  such  that  they  made  material  for 
nightmare  in  the  minds  of  both  young  men  for  the 
rest  of  their  lives.  In  battle,  when  the  blood  is  hot, 
war's  horrors  are  not  felt ;  but  the  aftermath  in  cool 
experiences  breeds  misery  to  the  sensitive  soul. 
Some  of  the  images  thus  swept  into  their  dreams 
tortured  them  for  days  after,  even  in  their  waking 
hours.  To  see  single  corpses  lying  in  pools  of  blood 
was  not  so  terrible ;  but  out  where,  in  the  dry  moat, 
the  piles  of  dead  men  and  horses  lay  several  feet 
high,  the  sight  was  sickening.  Many  a  man  and 
many  a  beast,  after  being  shot,  having  much  strength 
still  left,  had  tried  to  extricate  themselves  from  the 
mass  above  them,  and  in  their  vain  agony  had  stif- 
fened in  hideous  forms  that,  for  spectator  and  witness, 
haunted  the  memory  forever.  The  air  soon  became 
laden  and  the  water  charged  with  the  poison  of  cor- 
ruption. 

Thus  exposed  to  such  deadly  danger,  Masaro  was 
seized  with  a  chill,  fever  developed  rapidly,  and  soon 
he  was  suffering  violent  pains  in  the  head,  back,  and 
limbs.  In  a  word,  he  had  been  struck  and  was  reel- 
ing before  the  onset  of  typhus  fever.  In  a  few  hours 
he  was  in  a  condition  of  stupor. 

The  two  young  men  were  occupying  the  Korean 
house  of  which  they  had  taken  possession,  since  no 
claimant  appeared,  only  a  few  of  the  city's  people  as. 
yet  coming  back  to  discover  and  occupy  their  former 


204  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

homes.  Clarence  Burnham  had  made  the  Japanese 
proverb  his  own,  —  "In  the  world  a  friend,  in  travel- 
ling a  companion."  He  watched  over  his  comrade 
very  tenderly,  and  resolved  then  and  there  to  stay  and 
nurse  him ;  but  on  reporting  his  case  to  the  military 
surgeons,  Masaro  was  taken  in  hand  and  removed  to 
the  hospital  to  be  treated  with  and  like  the  soldiers. 

As  it  was  now  well  into  October,  and  Clarence's 
permission  to  move  with  the  army  being  confined 
only  to  Korea,  and  withal  a  letter  from  his  father 
having  reached  him,  approving  of  his  course,  but 
urging  the  necessity  of  returning  at  once,  Clarence 
left  with  a  wagon  train  and  convoy,  and  retraced 
his  steps  to  Seoul.  He  returned  the  field-glass  to  his 
American  missionary  friend,  and  told  his  adventures 
to  a  group  of  gentlemen,  most  of  them  graduates  of 
American  colleges,  one  of  his  most  eager  listeners 
being  a  veteran  in  our  own  Civil  War,  and  another 
a  missionary  who  had  formerly  worked  in  Ping  Yang 
and  was  now  eager  to  resume  his  labors  there. 
From  Chemulpo,  now  in  appearance  a  great  camp 
and  depot  of  military  stores,  Clarence  took  the  Jap- 
anese mail  steamer  home. 

Strange  to  say,  the  war  seemed  to  have  very  little 
effect  upon  general  business,  and  varied  activities, 
military  and  commercial,  went  on  as  usual,  which  were 
indeed  to  double  in  a  few  years  Japan's  volume  of 
trade  and  industry.  They  were  also  to  more  than 


THE   FALCON   AT  THE   MASTHEAD.        205 

double  her  burdens  in  maintaining  her  position 
among  the  nations  by  the  possession  of  that  force 
which  so-called  Christian  nations  so  highly  respect. 
Having  found  that  civilization  meant  big  guns  and 
ships,  and  power  to  inflict  misery,  the  Japanese  were 
determined  to  be,  in  these  respects,  at  least,  as  civil- 
ized as  the  benevolent  people  of  the  West. 

In  Yokohama,  though  a  hero  among  his  many  new- 
found friends,  and  often  interviewed  by  representa- 
tives of  both  the  Anglo- Japanese  and  the  native 
journals,  he,  with  little  present  desire  to  see  more 
of  war,  began  faithfully  to  fulfil  the  routine  of  the 
counting-house. 

The  autumn  had  passed  away,  and  winter,  which  in 
Japan  is  so  mild  and  beautiful,  had  come.  The  month 
of  December  seemed  a  veritable  rosary  of  thirty-one 
sapphire  gems.  During  its  lovely  days,  the  glorious 
blue  above  knew  not  a  single  cloud.  In  the  cele- 
bration of  Christmas,  an  increasing  number  of  the 
Japanese  had  participated.  The  decorations  and 
emblematic  ornaments  of  New  Year's  Day,  the  pine 
tree,  the  lobster,  the  charcoal,  the  orange,  —  all 
symbols  of  longevity  and  prosperity,  —  and  the  ship 
of  luck  laden  with  the  seven  gods  of  happiness  and 
the  tokens  of  wealth  had  been  enjoyed  and  removed. 

The  wide-awake  missionaries  were  at  the  camps 
around  Hiroshima,  whither  also  the  Emperor  had 
gone  and  was  dwelling,  and  in  each  Japanese  knap- 


206  IN  THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

sack  was  now  to  be  found  a  copy  of  one  of  the 
gospels.  In  shape  the  tiny  book  of  the  good  news 
of  God  to  all  men  did  not  exceed  more  than  half  the 
size  of  a  playing  card,  nor  in  weight  was  it  more  than 
one-third  of  a  pack.  In  this  they  could  read  of  one 
more  winningly  human  than  even  a  samurai,  more 
godlike  even  than  an  emperor,  and  who  said,  "  My 
kingdom  is  not  of  this  world." 

It  was  on  a  bright  day  in  mid- January  that  Clar- 
ence Burnham  enjoyed  a  call,  unexpected  and  de- 
lightful, from  his  friend  Jozuna.  In  the  long 
evening  hours,  as  he  had  been  invited  to  dinner,  the 
latter  told  the  story  of  his  further  adventures  in  the 
fleet.  He  had  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  in  the  first 
naval  battle  in  modern  times  between  iron  and  steel 
vessels  of  war. 

"  You  were  on  the  Naniwa,  of  course,"  said 
Clarence  to  his  friend. 

"  Yes,  but  not  during  the  battle.  The  naval 
officer  whose  place  I  had  temporarily  taken  had  re- 
covered health  and  strength,  and  wanted  his  place.  I 
was  transferred  to  the  Saikio,  a  very  swift  but  a  very 
small  ship,  which  had  some  wonderful  adventures." 

"Tell  me  them  in  full." 

"  Well,  you  know  that  the  Saikio  was  an  ex-mer- 
chant steamer  turned  into  a  cruiser  for  the  time 
being.  Though  swift,  she  was  not  worth  much  as 
a  fighting  ship,  being  only  of  wood,  with  no  armor 


THE    FALCON   AT  THE   MASTHEAD.        207 

protection.  Compared  with  the  regular  cruisers,  and 
in  comparison  with  the  Chinese  battleship,  she  was 
but  as  a  pygmy  to  a  giant,  and  the  Chinese  soon 
found  out  that  ours  was  a  weak  ship.  Their  big 
battleship  sent  us  a  shell  which  exploded  on  board, 
making  a  complete  wreck  of  our  steering  gear,  be- 
sides doing  an  immense  amount  of  other  damage." 

"  I  suppose,  then,  your  ship  turned  tail  and  got  out 
of  the  fight  ?  " 

"  Not  a  bit  of  it.  Our  admiral,  Kabamaya,  who  was 
on  a  tour  of  inspection,  but  wanted  to  be  in  the  fight 
for  the  pleasure  of  it,  would  not  retreat  even  when 
things  looked  so  dark.  So  he  did  the  best  he  could. 
Signalling  to  the  flagship  what  had  happened,  he 
was  able,  by  working  the  screws  skilfully,  to  run  our 
ship  between  the  Naniwa  and  the  Akitsushima.  The 
Chinese,  however,  found  out  our  trouble  and  deter- 
mined to  sink  us.  Two  of  their  big  ships,  putting  on 
full  speed,  started  in  pursuit  of  us ;  but,  when  we 
were  only  ninety  yards  distant  from  them,  they  must 
have  got  the  idea  that  our  commander  was  trying  to 
ram  them,  for  suddenly  they  sheered  off. 

"  It  was  about  this  time  that  what  we  supposed  to 
be  the  Chinese  reserve  force,  consisting  of  two  men- 
of-war  and  two  torpedo-boats,  approached.  How 
pretty  they  did  look,  as  clean  and  sharp  as  arrows, 
and  almost  as  swift,  they  came  on  !  Evidently  afraid 
to  tackle  the  larger  ships  of  our  squadron  with  their 


208  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

heavy  guns  and  quick  firers,  but  seeing  that  we  were 
in  trouble,  they  started  for  us.  Then  our  own  quick- 
firing  guns  were  manned  and  began  to  spout  iron,  I 
can  tell  you." 

"  You  drove  them  off,  did  you  ? " 

"We  really  thought  so  at  first,  for  the  torpedo- 
boats  sheered  off  toward  the  coast,  but  the  two  men- 
of-war  kept  forging  ahead  until  within  about  five 
hundred  yards  of  us.  We  thought  now  that  our 
battle  would  be  wholly  with  them,  when  suddenly  a 
torpedo-boat  seemed  to  pop  right  up  out  of  the  sea 
directly  in  front  of  us,  and  the  first  thing  we  knew, 
out  leaped  a  fish  torpedo  that  came  hissing  toward 
us,  throwing  up  great  jets  of  spray  which  made  the 
prettiest  sight  imaginable." 

"  Why,  you  talk  as  if  you  had  photographed  it." 

"  Well,  believe  it  as  you  may,  but,  provided  as  we 
were  with  photographic  apparatus,  we  did  get  four 
splendid  big  plates  out  of  our  eight  or  ten  exposures 
and  snap  shots,  and  here  they  are." 

Clarence  was  surprised  to  see  how  clearly  the 
terrible  incidents  of  war  could  be  copied  by  the  light 
—  as  written  down  by  science  and  clever  manipu- 
lation. There  was  the  picture  of  the  sea,  with  its 
foam  cast  up  in  clouds  as  the  torpedo  ripped  and 
tore  its  way. 

"  And  to  think  that  you  saw  it  coming  at  you." 

"We  did.     Our  captain  turned  the  screws  so  as 


THE   FALCON   AT  THE   MASTHEAD.        209 

to  bring  the  bow  of  our  ship  directly  toward  it  and 
went  at  it ;  and  —  would  you  believe  it  ?  —  the  swell 
of  the  water  turned  the  big  thing  aside,  where  it 
hissed  by,  passing  us  on  an  oblique  course,  though 
we  were  at  one  time  not  more  than  a  yard  or  two 
from  it." 

"What  then?"  said  Clarence. 

"The  spiteful  little  torpedo-boat  did  not  lose  one 
moment,  but  began  again.  This  time  it  shot  another 
torpedo  from  her  port  bow  directly  at  us  when  we 
were  lying  at  right  angles  to  her. 

"  Some  of  us  held  our  breath  as  we  saw  this  terror 
tossing  up  the  spray  and  coming  directly  toward  us. 
But  would  you  believe  it  •?  The  spirits  of  our  admiral, 
though  he  probably  expected,  in  less  than  the  tenth 
of  a  minute,  to  be  many  yards  up  in  the  air,  rose  to 
the  occasion.  He  cracked  some  joke  and  made  his 
officers  laugh.  Yet,  notwithstanding  that  we  all 
were  waiting  to  be  evaporated,  as  it  were,  the  tor- 
pedo actually  passed  down  into  the  water  and  under 
our  keel.  While  we  were  wondering  what  had  be- 
come of  it  we  saw  it  '  bob  up  serenely,'  as  you  used 
to  sing,  and  there  it  lay  floating  on  the  waves  to  the 
eastward. 

"  By  this  time  the  Chinese  men-of-war  that  had 
hoped  to  sink  us  were  compelled  to  pay  all  their 
attentions  to  our  war  vessels,  which  were  like  so 
many  pumps  spurting  out  fire  and  iron.  Then  took 


210  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

place  that  terrible  duel  between  the  Chinese  battle- 
ship Ting  Yuen  and  our  flagship  the  Matsushima, 
in  which  both  were  so  frightfully  punished.  As  I 
looked  at  their  flags  high  aloft  in  the  smoke,  I  thought 
of  a  snarling  dragon  in  the  mud  and  the  sun  in  a 
serene  sky.  You  know  the  rest  of  the  story,  how 
our  flagship  and  the  saucy  little  Akagi  had  to  be 
sent  back  for  repairs ;  while  the  Chinese  fleet,  which 
we  expected  we  should  have  to  fight  again  next 
day,  returned  to  China,  having  lost  five  of  the 
twelve  vessels,  three  sunk,  one  blown  up,  and  one 
abandoned." 

"  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  the  Saikio  would  have 
fought  next  day  ?  " 

"  I  do ;  an  unarmored  wooden  ship  as  she  was,  she 
was  ready  to  try  again  the  wager  of  battle.  We 
soon  rigged  up  a  steering  apparatus,  and  then  you 
must  remember  that,  though  we  had  a  dozen  wounded, 
there  was  not  a  man  killed  on  the  ship.  No  human 
life  was  lost." 

"  Is  it  possible  ? "  asked  Clarence.  "  But  why  say 
human  ?  " 

"  Ah  !  there  was  one  fatal  casualty  on  board,"  and 
Jozuna's  eyes  twinkled. 

"  Come,  now,  I  expect  you  to  have  some  joke  on 
me.  I  remember  when  the  transport  blew  up,  as  I 
was  striking  out  for  life,  I  passed  two  Chinese  war- 
riors that  had  hold  of  the  tail  of  a  sheep  which  was 


THE   FALCON   AT  THE   MASTHEAD.        211 

swimming  lustily,  I  didn't  know  what  was  the  issue. 
Did  the  Saikio  lose  a  sheep  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Jozuna,  "  but  when  the  ten-inch  shell 
from  the  Ting  Yuen  entered  our  saloon  and  cut  the 
steam  pipe  which  directed  the  steering  apparatus, 
we  "had  actually  to  laugh  to  see  scores  of  rats  scam- 
pering out  of  their  quarters.  They  rushed  around 
in  a  lively  way  to  find  more  sheltered  and  com- 
fortable resting-places.  Sad  to  tell,  one  of  the  poor 
rats  was  struck  by  a  splinter  which  ended  his  days." 

"  The  poor  Chinese,  rather,  who  wasted  such  a  big 
shell,  two  torpedoes,  and  who  knows  how  many  shots 
that  didn't  hit." 

"  Why,  yes,  it  reminds  me  of  a  mountain  —  in  our 
case  one  of  fire  —  that  brought  forth  only  a  mouse, 
or  as  the  little  girl  said,  *  a  rat's  baby.'  But  with  us 
the  rats  served  us  further." 

"  How's  that  ?  tell  me.  I  have  never  heard  of 
nautical  rats  serving  any  useful  purpose,  except 
when  a  steamer  stops,  say,  in  mid-ocean,  a  rat  may 
serve  metaphorically  as  a  'black  sheep.'  When  the 
passengers  ask  what  is  the  matter,  they  are  told  that 
'  a  rat  has  got  into  the  machinery.'  So  it  was  with 
you,  I  suppose." 

Jozuna  put  on  an  offended  look. 

"  No  !  After  the  Chinese  had  pointed  their  prows 
for  Wei-Hai-Wei,  and  showed  us  their  sterns,  the 
battle  smoke  blew  away,  and  then  there  was  a  beauti- 


212  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

ful  sight.  The  officers  on  each  ship  congratulated 
their  captain ;  and  the  men,  thinking  of  their  friends 
at  home,  looked  out  toward  Japan.  Suddenly  the 
sailors  of  the  whole  fleet  broke  out  singing  our 
national  anthem.  The  band  of  the  flagship  played 
the  melody,  and  there  was  one  union  of  sound  and 
song.  Although  it  was  growing  toward  dusk,  the 
air  was  clear  and  pure,  when  suddenly  we  heard  the 
flapping  of  wings,  and  looking  up  saw  a  splendid 
falcon.  Gracefully  the  bird  alighted  on  the  right  of 
the  main  topsail-yardarm  of  the  war  steamer  Taka- 
chiho.  The  omen  seemed  Heaven-sent.  It  was,  as 
you  say,  'the  angel  of  victory/  perching  on  our  ban- 
ners. Probably  every  man  in  the  fleet  was  reminded 
of  how,  when  our  first  emperor  was  conquering  Japan 
for  the  sun  goddess,  a  bird  descended  on  his  helmet." 
"  Didn't  any  one  try  to  catch  the  falcon  ?  " 
"  That's  just  what  Nomoto,  a  petty  officer,  did.  He 
sprang  up  the  rigging,  and  the  bird  let  him  come  near 
and  catch  it,  and  with  it  on  his  wrist  he  came  down, 
while  the  men  called  out,  '  Heaven's  messenger.' 

"  Our  ship  carpenter  at  once  made  the  new  guest  a 
big  cage,  which  was  hung  up  in  the  captain's  cabin. 
The  bird  seemed  to  like  being  the  ship's  pet,  for  it 
became  very  tame,  especially  as  it  was  treated  to  all 
kinds  of  dainties  ;  but  what  it  enjoyed  most  was  a  rat. 
No  gentleman  ever  peeled  his  apple  more  neatly  or 
ate  with  better  manners.  The  way  it  used  to  skin 


THE   FALCON   AT  THE   MASTHEAD.        213 

that  rodent  and  prepare  its  carcass  as  a  specimen 
of  dressed  meat,  would  have  done  you  good  to  see. 
When  the  Emperor  sent  a  court  chamberlain  to  convey 
his  thanks  to  the  fleet,  the  bird  was  presented  to  his 
Majesty,  and  now  enjoys  life  in  the  imperial  aviary  in 
Tokio." 

"  A  wonderful  story.  It  seems  almost  like  a  fairy 
tale.  But  now  tell  me,  chum,  what  are  you  going  to 
do  next  ? " 

"  Well,  I  am  in  luck,  I  suppose,  —  at  least,  some 
would  think  so,  for  I  am  to  go  on  torpedo-boat  ser- 
vice ;  and  there  will  soon  be  lively  work  at  Wei-Hai- 
Wei.  I  am  so  fortunate  as  to  be  under  the  command 
of  an  officer  with  whom  I  served  in  the  fleet,  and  who 
is  a  good  friend  and  shipmate.  You  know  it  is  more 
important  to  be  with  congenial  officers  and  fellow- 
workers  in  the  navy  than  on  land,  or  in  the  army. 
When  you  are  on  shore  and  have  a  disagreement,  or 
feel  offended  with  anybody,  you  can  go  outdoors  and 
walk  it  off ;  but  on  a  ship  you  are  shut  up  to  sit  month 
after  month  aside,  or  be  opposite,  or  close  by,  your 
rival  or  antagonist.  In  a  torpedo-boat,  which  is  a 
sardine  box  of  human  beings,  you  must  needs  be  well 
pleased  with  your  company.  So  I  am  glad  I  have 
a  good  commander,  since  I  am  going  on  a  tin  boat. 
But  I  can  assure  you,  chum,  that  you  will  probably 
never  see  me  again.  You  know  our  Japanese  cus- 
tom of  making  little  gifts  when  we  part,  So  please 


214  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

accept  this  little  trifle,  and  always  use  it  on  your 
table." 

The  souvenir  was  a  pretty  little  box  of  oxidized 
silver  made,  as  to  its  interior  divisions,  to  hold  Japan's 
postage  stamps.  On  the  lid,  the  design  was  the  full 
moon  in  bright  silver,  with  dark  clouds  to  the  right, 
out  of  which  emerged  a  string  of  wild  geese  flying 
across  the  heavens,  each  one  as  he  came  out  of  the 
dark  shadow  becoming  silver  in  the  light  of  the  lumi- 
nary, a.ndthen  disappearing  in  the  darkness  —  around 
the  other  side  of  the  box.  Like  a  true  piece  of  Jap- 
anese workmanship,  it  was  as  perfectly  finished  on 
the  sides  and  back  as  on  the  front. 

"  Thank  you,  thank  you ;  I  admire  the  design.  I 
can  quote  the  poem  of  'the  feathered  fleet  in  the 
empyrean '  in  Chamberlain's  translation.  Listen  :  — 

"  '  What  bark  impelPd  by  autumn's  fresh'ning  gale 

Comes  speeding  t'ward  me  ?    'Tis  the  wild  geese  driv'n 
Across  the  fathomless  expanse  of  heav'n, 
And  lifting  up  their  voices  for  a  sail.'  " 

"Thanks,  friend;  but  there's  more  than  that  in 
the  symbol.  There's  no  silver  moon  in  the  ancient 
poem." 

Clasping  hands,  the  two  friends  parted. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  POEM  FOUND  IN  A  TORPEDO-BOAT. 

IT  was  in  mid-winter  when  Jozuna  once  more  left 
his  native  country,  and  this  time  in  a  torpedo- 
boat  to  face  China,  death,  and  fame.  "  Safe 
flight,  prompt  arrival,  a  dark  night,  and  then  full 
moon  for  evermore,"  was  the  prayer  of  this  loyal 
servant  of  the  Emperor. 

Deo  mndice. 

To-day  there  is  a  glorious  camphor  tree  that  at 
sunset  casts  a  long  shadow  over  the  pretty  little  Jap- 
anese cemetery  at  Nagasaki.  Here  are  ranged  in 
order  hundreds  of  memorials,  square  stones  a  yard 
high  and  inscribed  on  one  side  with  war's  grammar 
of  nominative  and  syntax  —  name  and  position  of  the 
dead  patriot  on  ship  or  in  regiment.  The  men  thus 
honored  gave  up  their  lives  in  their  country's  behalf, 
either  in  Formosa  in  1874,  or  in  the  ever  memorable 
war  of  1894-1895,  when  Japan's  armies  met  China's 
only  army  at  Ping  Yang,  and  then  after  her  fleets  of 
steel  cruisers  had  annihilated  China's  sea  power,  faced 
outnumbering  myriads  in  military  mobs,  and  won  a 

215 


216  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

territory  on  the  continent  in  area  larger  than   the 
empire  of  Japan. 

Each  tiny  memorial  shaft  is  set  in  a  space  bordered 
with  curbing-stone  and  rilled  in  with  pebbles.  In 
front  of  the  side  bearing  the  inscription  is  a  bam- 
boo socket  in  which,  as  they  who  go  to  the  ceme- 
tery often  will  notice,  are  fresh  flowers.  These  are 
wild  meadow  blooms,  the  mountain  lily,  the  japonica, 
the  azalea,  or  the  wistaria  in  their  season,  but,  always, 
fresh,  bright  flowers.  Japan's  Decoration  or  Memo- 
rial Day  is  centuries  old,  though  revived  since  1868. 
The  inscription  tells  of  Jozuna  Hisamoto,  Heimin, 
able  seaman  on  torpedo-boat  No.  17.  Killed  at 
Wei-Hai-Wei. 

"  The  wild  goose  feeds  in  the  rice  swamp, 
But  he  loves  most  the  silver  of  the  zenith." 

Just  what  happened  and  why  the  inscription  is 
such,  we  may  gather  from  a  conversation  of  two 
visitors  at  his  grave  on  the  first  anniversary  day  of 
his  death.  It  was  just  one  year  after  the  dead  hero, 
thus  commemorated  with  chisel  work  in  stone,  India 
ink,  and  flowers,  had  been  found  frozen  in  a  shroud 
of  ice  on  torpedo-boat  No.  17. 

"  So  Jozuna  was  your  pupil,  was  he  ? "  remarked 
the  Japanese  member  of  the  party,  to  the  visiting 
American,  who  was  none  other  than  the  teacher 
whom  we  met  at  Yokohama  in  our  opening  chapter. 


THE   POEM   FOUND   IN   A  TORPEDO-BOAT.   217 

He  had  not,  as  most  tourists  do,  come  to  Nagasaki  to 
see  merely  the  classic  site  of  the  Deshima  Dutchmen, 
the  old  conning  tower  and  loophole  of  Hermit  Japan, 
and  the  place  which  Defoe  makes  that  of  Gulliver's 
visit.  His  purpose  was  to  pay  the  tribute  of  ad- 
miration and  of  unrestrainable  tears  at  the  grave 
of  a  young  comrade  in  learning. 

"  Yes,"  said  the  American,  "  and  a  brighter  student 
I  never  had ;  but  after  he  left  school  I  never  saw  him 
again,  except  when  he  was  being  deported  to  Amer- 
ica, under  suspicion  of  being  a  dynamiter.  Of  his 
history  since,  I  know  only  vague  outlines.  Can  you 
tell  me  the  whole  story  ? " 

"  Yes,"  replied  the  Japanese,  "  I  helped  him  into 
exile  to  save  his  life;  but  it  is  only  lately  that  I 
learned  his  later  story  in  full  myself.  As  quick  as 
steam  on  land  and  ocean  could  carry  him,  Jozuna, 
now  a  heimin,  left  New  York  for  Japan,  and  through 
the  influence  of  a  high  officer  in  our  government, 
whom  he  met  in  San  Francisco,  he  was  appointed  to 
fill  temporarily  the  place  of  an  officer  then  ill,  and 
take  charge  of  the  electric  plant  and  searchlights 
on  the  Naniwa.  He  was  in  the  famous  naval  cam- 
paign in  Korean  waters.  When  the  officer  whose 
place  he  had  filled  had  recovered  and  again  received 
his  old  position,  Jozuna's  fiery  patriotism  prompted 
him  to  enlist  as  a  first-class  seaman.  Fortunately, 
his  character  and  qualities  were  made  known  to  the 


218  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

naval  authorities,  and  his  shortcomings  as  a  practical 
sailor  were  atoned  for  by  his  manifest  mastery  of 
machinery  and  his  tested  and  proved  combination  of 
daring,  steady  nerves,  and  quick  judgment. 

"  It  so  happened,  as  I  learned  from  a  survivor,  that 
the  lieutenant  in  command  of  No.  17  had  ordered 
Jozuna  to  take  his  place  if  killed  or  disabled.  Sure 
enough,  this  officer  was  struck  down  by  a  one-pound 
ball  from  the  quick  firers  on  the  Chinese  ship,  and 
instantly  killed  at  the  first  discharge,  or  almost  as 
soon  as  our  boats  were  discovered.  There  was  yet 
some  distance  to  go  before  arriving  at  the  heavy 
boom  and  steel  cables  guarding  the  big  battleship, 
and  it  would  be  necessary  to  get  across  or  through 
the  floating  wall  of  wood  and  steel  before  slipping 
the  torpedo." 

"  What,  do  you  mean  to  say  that  these  cockle- 
shells were  ordered  to  ram,  cut  through,  or  blow  up 
a  steel  cable  and  chain  of  logs,  and  fight,  too  ? " 

"  Yes,  and  in  freezing  weather.  Admiral  Ito  nearly 
wept  when  he  gave  the  orders  to  attack.  He  knew 
that  not  only  could  machine  guns  on  the  Chinese 
ships  tear  through  the  egg-shell  sides  of  the  torpedo- 
boats  with  a  shower  of  iron  balls,  but  that  to  any  and 
every  man  escaping  the  missiles  it  was  sure  death  in 
the  icy  water.  No  life-preservers  could  avail  or 
rescue  boats  pick  up  any  one  swimming.  Either 
by  fire  or  water,  every  man  in  the  successful  boat 


THE   POEM   FOUND   IN   A  TORPEDO-BOAT.   219 

must  die.  It  was  a  time  when  the  men  on  the  look- 
out, and  even  officers  at  their  post,  were  frozen  to 
death.  Then  the  commander  of  No.  17  was  disabled, 
and  he  at  once  called  Jozuna  to  command  and  gave 
him  orders  to  force  the  boom  and  blow  a  gap  in  the 
steel  cable." 

"  How  did  you  hear  the  story  or  get  any  details  ? 
Brave  fellows  to  freeze  rather  than  flinch." 

"Well,  some  of  the  other  torpedo-boat  men  could 
make  out  most  of  what  took  place  by  means  of  the 
searchlights  of  the  Chinese  ship.  They  saw  No.  17 
slow  up,  as  its  bow  approached  the  boom  and  cable. 
Then  a  man  jumped  out  and  busied  himself  amid 
wire  and  logs  'as  lively  as  Shoki  among  the  Oni,' 
as  one  sailor  said.  This  was  Jozuna.  He  was  oc- 
cupied in  depositing  gun-cotton  in  the  right  place. 
Pretty  soon  the  big  floating  steel  arrow,  as  it  seemed, 
backed,  as  if  drawn  from  the  bow  by  the  thumb  and 
finger  of  our  mighty  mediaeval  archer  Tametomo. 
Then  followed  a  tremendous  explosion,  which  tore 
asunder  both  boom  and  cable,  and  sent  chips  of  wood 
and  steel  up  and  around  in  a  shower.  Then,  again 
like  Tametomo's  shaft,  the  torpedo-boat  No.  17  shot 
forward  through  the  opening  and  inside.  As  the 
sailor  declared  of  the  affair,  it  was  the  prettiest  sight 
he  ever  saw,  to  behold  in  the  glare  of  the  Chinese 
light  the  little  steel  craft  swing  slowly  —  oh !  how 
slowly  it  did  seem  to  the  watchers  on  the  distant 


220  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

battleship !  But,  how  the  Chinese  machine  gun 
men,  expecting  to  sink  the  craft  before  it  could 
unship  the  torpedo,  gloated  in  that  slowness,  for  they 
expected  to  have  a  hundred  shots  in  her  sides  within 
sixty  seconds. 

"  The  Japanese  were  for  the  moment  like  the  bee, 
hidden  and  helpless  inside  the  flower  of  the  morning- 
glory,  while  the  Chinese  bird  was  poising  its  wings 
for  darting  and  the  devouring  of  the  insect.  Then 
the  rapid-firing  guns  sent  their  shower  of  iron.  The 
shot,  no  bigger  than  plums,  but  more  numerous  than 
the  seeds  in  a  hundred  pomegranates,  tore  the 
waters  and  ripped  the  bows  of  No.  17.  Neverthe- 
less the  torpedo  sped  forward,  hissing,  toward  its 
mark.  For  one  minute  standing  amidships,  Jozuna 
waited,  while  his  heart  must  have  thumped  hard 
against  his  ribs.  There  in  the  hail  of  iron,  from  the 
broadside  of  machine  guns,  he  and  his  men,  as  yet 
untouched,  were  discerned  up  to  the  moment  when 
there  seemed  to  be  two  explosions  together.  No- 
body could  tell  that  night  what  had  happened  to 
No.  17,  but  what  took  place  under  the  Ting  Yuen 
all  knew,  for  it  made  a  sight  never  to  be  forgotten 
till,  as  the  admiral  said,  '  we  change  our  worlds.' 

"  The  torpedo  struck  home.  The  big  steel  battle- 
ship seemed  visibly  to  rise  in  the  middle,  as  if  a  long 
quiet  volcano  had  suddenly  come-  to  eruption  and 
blown  off  its  crater  top  under  the  ship's  keel.  A  few 


THE   POEM    FOUND   IN    A  TORPEDO-BOAT.   221 

moments  more  and  amid  the  swirling,  boiling,  and 
bubbling  sea  the  floating  fortress  had  sunk.  It  was 
aground  in  the  harbor,  but  deep  down  below  the 
surface  of  the  sea." 

"  What  happened  to  the  torpedo-boat  ?  " 

"Well,  scarcely  more  than  a  moment  before  the 
Ting  Yuen  blew  up,  something  happened  to  the 
little  craft.  Just  what  it  was  no  one  could  tell,  for 
the  Chinese  searchlights  of  course  ceased  as  the 
mighty  ship  went  down.  One  sailor  was  sure  that 
he  saw  steam  escaping  in  clouds,  but  amid  the  spray 
tossed  up  it  was  hard  to  tell  steam  from  foam,  though 
the  lookout  on  No.  23  declared  he  saw  a  white  cloud 
rise  above  No.  17." 

"  Did  no  one  escape  ?  Are  there  no  letters,  re- 
ports, or  any  writing  concerning  the  affair  from  any 
one  on  No.  17?  " 

"  Not  a  scrap.  Nor  was  any  response  made  during 
any  part  of  the  night  to  the  signals  from  the  flag- 
ship. Nothing  could  be  learned  of  the  fate  of  No. 
17,  but  at  daybreak  the  patrol  boats  were  sent  out. 
Not  far  away  from  the  broken  boom,  but  within  it 
and  the  harbor,  floated  No.  17.  A  boat  was  quickly 
pulled  to  it  from  the  patrol  vessel,  our  people  hoping 
to  find  at  least  some  wounded  on  board.  But  no. 
'  Dead  men  tell  no  tales  '  with  their  lips ;  but  in  this 
case  the  remnants  of  twenty  corpses,  some  on  board, 
others  floating  in  the  harbor,  told  clearly  a  story  in 


222  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

which  all,  though  mute  in  death,  agreed.  Every 
single  corpse,  except  the  lieutenant  shot  through  the 
head,  was  scalded  or  mutilated  by  fragments  of  the 
boat  itself.  Ripped  and  torn  as  the  vessel  was,  the 
mystery  of  total  loss  of  life  was  not  explained,  until 
it  was  found  that  a  shot — absurdly  small,  but  amply 
efficient  —  had  pierced  the  steam  pipes  and  done  the 
rest.  There  frozen  to  the  deck,  literally  in  a  shroud 
of  ice,  lay  Jozuna." 

"  Was  any  letter  or  paper  found  on  him  ? " 
"Yes  and  no.  All  his  property,  even  to  his 
clothes  and  private  tools  in  his  kit,  was  handed  over 
to  me,  his  uncle,  as  nearest  known  kin.  In  an  oiled- 
paper  envelope  was  a  paper  addressed  to  me,  which 
said  in  prose:  'Look  on  my  breast,  interpret  the 
symbolism,  and  believe  me  without  stain  of  criminal 
intent  to  his  Majesty's  servants.  Look  in  the  night 
sky  in  time  of  full  moon  when  the  wild  geese  sail  in 
mid-heaven,  and  see  my  spirit  there,  pure  and  inno- 
cent. As  in  mid-heaven  the  geese  fly  far  above  this 
gross  earth  to  become  silvery  white  in  the  moon's 
presence,  so  soars  my  hope  to  win  the  Emperor's 
favor,  my  country's  honor,  and  the  belief  of  my  kins- 
men that  I  am  innocent  of  even  the  thought  of  the 
assassin's  crime.' " 

"  Well,  well,  well,  '  Naru  hodo  ! '  as  you  Japanese 
say.  Now  I  understand  what  Jozuna  meant  by  giv- 
ing me  his  own  picture  of  the  geese  flying  across  the 


THE    POEM    FOUND   IN    A   TORPEDO-BOAT.   223 

moon,  and  his  hope  that  I  would  think  him  a  goose. 
I  nearly  laughed  in  his  face  then,  in  spite  of  his  sad 
looks.  Now  I  feel  differently." 

Then  happened  that  play  of  emotion  which  dif- 
ferentiates the  Japanese  from  the  Occidental  man. 
The  Anglo-Saxon  may  control  himself  in  stolid  calm, 
or  his  eyes  may  moisten  and  dim  as  the  American 
pedagogue's  did  here  at  Nagasaki  under  the  camphor 
tree.  The  Japanese,  his  peer  in  self-discipline,  will 
almost  certainly  smile  —  even  when  his  heart  is 
gnawed  with  grief.  This  was  just  what  the  Em- 
peror's minister  did.  It  was  no  guffaw,  no  coarse 
grin.  It  was  the  smile  of  the  gentleman  —  the 
cultured,  self-controlled  son  of  Japan  —  a  smile  that 
covered  tortures  of  grief  within. 

The  pause  of  a  few  minutes  over,  —  after  two  pairs 
of  eyes  had  swept  the  landscape,  and  the  air,  laden 
alike  with  the  perfumes  of  summer  flowers  and 
quivering  with  the  boom  of  temple  bells,  filled  again 
the  lungs,  —  clear  speech  proceeded. 

"  I  have  learned  your  countrymen's  custom  of  pen- 
ning poems  on  taking  their  earthly  farewells.  Did 
Jozuna,  exile  and  innocent  as  he  declared  himself, 
leave  no  poetic  legacy,  no  other  proof  of  his  own 
belief  in  his  innocence  ? " 

"Yes,  proof  enough.  For  a  gentleman  in  Japan 
to  submit  to  be  tattooed  is  'as  rare  as  the  udoge" 
flower.'  The  sailors  who  removed  Jozuna's  clothing, 


224  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

before  packing  his  body  in  quicklime  for  removal 
here  to  Nagasaki,  were  surprised  to  find  his  breast 
covered  with  tattooing  in  finest  artistic  style  and  color 
—  the  ancient  design  of  the  geese  flying  in  front  of 
the  full  moon.  When  the  officers  on  the  Naniwa, 
where  his  personality  was  known,  recognized  the 
body  and  the  picture  on  it,  they  were  startled.  They 
saw  the  point  of  significance  at  once.  They  raised 
the  '  Banzai '  —  and  some  turned  away  to  think 
hard." 

"  The  '  Banzai ' !  what's  that  ?  " 

"  Oh,  don't  you  know  that  our  men  in  this  war 
have  invented  a  new  cheer  ?  '  Banzai '  means  ten 
thousand  generations.  It  is  equivalent  to  *  Vive 
1'empereur ! '  or  '  Long  live  the  king  ! '  It  is  a  sort  of 
patriot's  sacramental,  '  May  the  imperial  line  live  ten 
thousand  generations,'  or,  for  short,  '  Japan  forever.' 
Formerly  used  by  a  few  on  special  occasions,  it  is 
now  a  national  cheer.  I  have  no  doubt  Jozuna 
shouted  it  amid  the  crash  and  in  the  very  teeth  of 
the  Chinese  guns." 

"  What  more  ?  Any  poetry  from  our  friend,  artist, 
patriot,  hero  ? " 

"  Yes,  this  was  written  just  below  the  prose,  in  the 
usual  uta,  or  thirty-one-syllable  stanza  of  five  lines. 
I'll  render  it  in  plain  prose:  — 

" '  Better  be  a  wild  goose  mounting  to  the  heavens, 
clothed  with  light  for  one  flashing  moment,  though  I 


THE   POEM    FOUND   IN   A  TORPEDO-BOAT.   225 

fall  under  the  hunter's  shaft  at  daybreak,  than  live 
long  but  a/owl  in  the  barnyard.'  " 

Cleansed  from  all  stain  is  the  name  of  Jozuna. 
Japan  is  the  land  in  which  forgiveness  of  political  sins 
follows  swiftly,  when  the  suppliant's  innocence  is 
proved.  Yes,  when  either  the  unjustly  accused  man 
or  the  real  offender  can  and  will  say,  "  In  ignorance 
I  did  it "  ;  yes,  when  (before  either  knowledge  of 
unwitting  transgressions  or  proof  of  innocence  may 
come  during  the  lifetime  of  the  accused)  death  in 
loyalty  to  the  Emperor,  who  is  the  soul  of  their  native 
land,  is  courted,  and  life  is  given  to  redeem  erring 
act,  is  this  true.  The  recent  history  of  Japan  teems 
with  instances  of  the  Emperor's  gracious  forgiveness, 
yes,  of  posthumous  honors,  condoning  those  who 
mistakenly  fought  against  his  loyal  servants. 

The  doctrine  of  the  divinity  of  the  Mikado,  in  the 
dogmatic,  polemic  form  of  Shinto,  the  primitive  cult 
of  the  Japanese,  the  Occidental  cannot  accept.  But 
since  to  forgive  is  divine,  we,  too,  can  pay  the  tribute 
of  admiring  regard  to  Japan's  Emperor,  I2ist  of  the 
oldest  line  of  rulers  in  the  world,  for  manifestly  shar- 
ing so  much  an  attribute  of  God. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE    SWORD-SHRINE    AT   NIKKO. 

THE  summer  of  1895  had  come,  and  with  it  a 
discovery.  Clarence  Burnham  realized  that 
he  was  not  by  nature  a  business  man.  Suc- 
ceeding months  and  years  served  but  to  confirm  the 
conviction.  Even  the  prospect  of  making  a  fortune 
and  coming  home  to  live  within  theatre-train  distance 
of  New  York  or  Chicago,  did  not  appeal  to  him  as  it 
did  to  so  many  of  the  men  whom  he  met  in  the  hongs, 
at  the  club,  in  the  course  of  trade,  or  within  the 
round  of  pleasures  by  which  the  exiles  in  a  foreign 
land  divert  themselves  during  their  spare  hours. 

Various  were  the  faces  of  the  people  whom  he  met 
at  the  race-course,  promenade  gardens,  shooting 
range  and  targets,  hare-and-hound  runs,  and  in  hunt- 
ing, but  one  yearning  possessed  the  hearts  of  them 
all.  Many  had  long  been  in  the  country,  but  all 
wanted  to  go  home  after  they  had  made  the  fortune 
they  hoped  to  store  up.  One  was  waiting  for  the 
rise  of  silver,  another  for  the  fall  of  gold,  a  third  for 
a  lucky  turn  in  tea,  a  fourth  for  a  depression  in  the 

226 


THE   SWORD-SHRINE   AT   NIKKO.          227 

native  price  of  silk ;  but  all  lived  in  the  hope  of  joys  to 
come  —  not  in  Japan,  but  beyond  sea. 

During  the  very  busy  season  Clarence  would  strive 
to  "  put  in  a  new  brace,"  according  to  his  father's 
exhortation.  Then  he  toiled  with  a  spurt,  as  it  were, 
over  ledgers  and  daybooks,  at  the  sample  table,  and 
in  the  "  godown,"  or  storehouse,  from  the  Japanese 
"  blue  "  morning  till  red  evening.  But  when  trade 
was  slack,  all  ambition  to  master  the  business,  in  gross 
or  in  detail,  seemed  to  fly  from  him.  With  a  gun  on 
his  shoulder,  over  the  hills  or  among  the  rice  fields  in 
the  valley,  or  with  hook  and  line  by  moat  or  stream, 
Clarence  Burnham  made  many  a  golden  hour  slide 
between  his  fingers.  He  had  never  forgotten,  only 
stifled  his  desire  for  literary  culture  and  achievement. 
In  the  evenings  and  on  rainy  days  he  gave  himself  up 
to  the  joys  of  reading,  making  himself  acquainted  with 
the  fairyland  of  English  poetry,  the  varied  field  of 
modern  fiction,  and  the  masters  of  American  litera- 
ture. He  kept  up  his  familiarity  with  French. 
Indeed,  he  was  far  more  industrious  with  printed 
books  than  with  those  having  blank  or  ruled  pages. 

His  father  noticing  this,  sought  to  cure  what  he 
looked  upon  as  a  disease,  and  thinking  to  make  use 
of  a  well-known  remedy,  hoped  that  his  son  might 
find  among  the  many  lovely  young  ladies,  daughters 
of  English  and  American  residents  in  Yokohama  and 
Tokio,  a  companion  for  life's  mating.  He  did  not 


228  IN  THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

know  that  Clarence's  heart  was  in  Peking.  In 
China's  capital  lay  the  "  rock  unseen,  "  by  the  world 
at  large,  of  which  the  Japanese  poet  sings.  There 
dwelt  the  one  fair  woman  around  whom  the  young 
man's  hopes  and  longings  centred. 

"  My  love  is  like  a  rock 

Where  birds  of  white  wing  fly, 
Which  billows  overleap, 
And  sun  can  never  dry. 

"My  fondest  fancies  spring 
Around  her  every  hour, 
Bound  breaking  at  his  feet, 
And  o'er  her  brightness  tower. 

"The  gazer  on  the  land 

Looks  long  across  the  wave ; 
He  sees  a  ridge  of  snow 
Where  waters  roll  and  rave. 

"  The  rock  —  it  lieth  low 

Beneath  the  tumbling  sea ; 
My  darling's  steadfast  soul 
Is  known  to  none  but  me." 

In  truth,  Clarence  Burnham  had  begun  seriously 
to  consider  whether  there  was  not  some  other  career 
open  for  him,  along  other  paths  than  those  of  com- 
mercial industry  and  ambitions,  for  his  distaste  for 
the  life  of  a  trader  seemed  to  have  grown  day  by  day, 
threatening  soon  to  reach  the  acute  stage.  The  war 
was  over,  and  the  triumphant  armies,  except  the  gar- 


THE   SWORD-SHRINE   AT   NIKKO.          229 

rison  at  Wei-Hai-Wei,  left  to  secure  the  fulfilment  of 
all  the  conditions  of  the  treaty,  had  returned. 

In  Formosa,  the  crack  division  of  the  national  host 
of  defenders,  the  imperial  guards,  and  a  few  other 
picked  regiments,  were  pacifying  that  unhappy  island, 
chasing  copper-colored  rebels  amid  the  sky-blue  bam- 
boo jungles,  and  finishing  up  the  work  of  subduing 
insurgents  of  various  Oriental  sorts  —  after  the  short- 
lived bubble  of  the  "  Formosan  Republic  "  had  burst. 
In  autumn,  even  the  guards  were  again  in  quarters 
in  Tokio.  When  the  Japanese  Johnny  came  march- 
ing home,  the  welcomes  were  aesthetic  rather  than 
bibulous.  The  country  now  settled  down  to  peace, 
but  also  to  expansion  and  to  heavier  taxes.  The 
people  must  bear  their  new  weight  of  glory,  and 
also  of  responsibility  incurred  in  being  a  world 
power. 

It  was  while  thus  waiting  in  uncertain  moods  that 
Clarence  Burnham  one  morning,  while  perched  on  a 
three-legged  stool,  poring  over  his  desk  in  the  hong, 
received  a  "  chit."  Opening,  he  found  it  to  contain 
a  message  from  his  friend  Masaro.  He  was  in  Yoko- 
hama, and  asked  for  an  appointment  to  meet  and  talk 
with  his  friend,  Clarence  Burnham. 

That  evening,  when  they  met  together,  Clarence 
opened  the  ball  by  saying,  after  the  usual  common- 
places among  friends  were  over  :  — 

"  Now  tell  me,  old  fellow,  everything  that  has  hap- 


230  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

pened  since  I  left  you  at  Ping  Yang,  when  you  were 
too  sick  to  know  me." 

Masaro  began  to  narrate  in  detail  his  experiences 
in  Korea.  Too  much  weakened  by  the  fever  to  con- 
tinue his  work  as  war  correspondent,  he  had  accepted, 
on  his  return  to  Seoul,  an  important  appointment. 
It  was  to  assist  Count  Inouye",  the  Mikado's  envoy, 
to  carry  out  in  the  peninsular  kingdom  some  of  those 
reforms  which  it  was  hoped  would  make  a  new  nation 
of  Korea,  and  lead  her  in  the  same  path  of  progress 
upon  which  Japan  had  so  brilliantly  entered. 

After  a  few  weeks  of  special  work,  Masaro  had 
settled  down  as  principal  of  the  Korean  Government 
School  for  the  training,  in  the  Japanese  language  and 
literature,  of  interpreters  and  young  men  for  govern- 
ment posts.  When  diplomacy,  following  the  cessation 
of  active  military  operations,  resulted  in  the  treaty 
negotiated  by  Li  Hung  Chang  and  Ito,  Masaro  was 
appointed  to  assist  the  imperial  envoy  when  he  went 
to  Chifu  to  exchange  ratifications  with  the  Chinese 
peace  commissioners. 

"  This  was  the  comic  stage  of  the  proceedings  as 
far  as  the  governments  not  immediately  concerned 
showed  their  feelings,"  said  Masaro.  "  On  the  6th 
of  May,  our  little  steamer,  the  Yokohama  Maru, 
reached  Chifu,  where  we  were  soon  joined  by  an- 
other small  vessel,  the  Higo  Maru" 

"  Why  do  you  join  the  word  '  Maru  '  to  your  names 
of  ships?" 


THE   SWORD-SHRINE   AT   NIKKO.          231 

"Well,  you  know  we  used  to  name  in  this  way 
the  parts  of  a  castle  and  also  swords.  Now,  as  the 
sword  was  the  soul  of  the  samurai,  it  may  be  that 
the  soul  of  New  Japan  is  a  ship,  and  a  steamer,  too," 
and  Masaro  laughed  heartily. 

"Then  I  suppose  that  'kan,'  after  the  name  of  a 
war  vessel,  means  power,  like  the  *  kan '  that  we  spell 
'  Khan,'  of  whom  Kublai  Khan  with  us  is  the  most 
famous  ? " 

"  Yes,  have  it  so.  Certainly  the  Chinese  envoys 
behaved  like  Tartar  Khans.  They  were  very  slow 
to  fulfil  their  part  of  the  contract,  yet  at  last,  late 
in  the  evening,  toward  eleven  o'clock,  the  ratifications 
were  exchanged,  and  the  treaty  of  peace  became  a 
fact.  I  am  sure  that  we  owe  much  to  your  Ameri- 
can ex-secretary  of  state  who  was  with  Li  Hung 
Chang.  He  constantly  smoothed  matters  and  oiled 
the  rather  ponderous  hinges  of  Chinese  business." 

"  Do  you  think,  then,  that  the  American  adviser 
helped  to  shorten  the  war  and  prevent  bloodshed  ? " 

"  Quite  sure  of  it,  for  what  does  a  Chinese  states- 
man care  for  the  lives  of  a  few  tens  of  thousands  of 
men  more  or  less  ?  Our  armies  could  certainly  have 
gotten  into  Peking,  and  no  doubt  there  would  have 
been  much  carnage ;  but  the  loss  of  life  would 
have  been  no  element  in  the  case,  indeed,  hardly  a 
consideration.  No  doubt  Li  feels  pretty  bad  at  losing 
the  forts  and  fleets,  on  which  he  spent  so  much  time 


232  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

and  thought ;  but  as  for  life,  the  value  of  it  as  such, 
the  thought  has  hardly  yet  entered  the  Chinese  offi- 
cial mind." 

"  I  think  you  exaggerate.  But  tell  me,  how  do 
you  feel  toward  the  different  countries,  Great  Britain, 
for  example  ? " 

"  Not  very  pleasantly.  The  British  merchants  in 
China  made  money  indiscriminately  out  of  both  com- 
batants, and  England  has  so  acted  all  through  this 
war  that  her  prestige  in  the  East  is  badly,  and  I  fear 
hopelessly,  damaged." 

"  What  of  the  United  States  ? " 

"  Well,  we  expected  nothing  but  sheer  neutrality, 
and  we  got  it;  but  there  is  one  thing  I  think  that 
has  spotted  even  your  flag." 

"  What  ?  Do  you  mean  the  case  of  your  two  coun- 
trymen, whom  our  government  ordered  the  United 
States  consul  in  Shanghai  to  deliver  to  the  Chinese? " 

"  I  do,"  said  Masaro. 

"  You  are  right  as  to  the  black  spot.  If  ever,  as 
an  American,  I  was  ashamed  of  my  country  and 
government,  it  was  when  these  two  students  were 
delivered  over  to  the  Chinese  for  a  trial  that  meant 
torture  and  death.  There  was  neither  justice  nor- 
law  in  the  affair,  for  the  Washington  authorities 
must  have  known  that  in  China  the  judges  always 
make  use  of  torture  in  their  trials." 

"Well,   it's   over  now;   but  our  feeling   is  worse 


THE   SWORD-SHRINE   AT   NIKKO.          233 

against  the  three  nations  that  combined  like  brigands 
to  rob  us  of  the  just  prizes  of  war." 

"  Yes,"  said  Clarence.  "  I  remarked,  when  the 
war  broke  out,  quoting  from  a  friend  on  the  steamer, 
that  whatever  the  issue,  the  Russian  bear  would  see 
his  way  cle-ar  to  a  meal." 

"  Yes,"  said  Masaro,  "  and  his  meal  is  a  big  one, 
for  sooner  or  later  he  will  have  all  Manchuria  under 
his  paws." 

"  How  do  you  feel  toward  Germany  and  France  ? " 
asked  Clarence. 

"  Robbers  in  the  same  game,"  said  Masaro ;  "  one 
already  has  part  of  China,  and  the  other,  no  doubt, 
will  have  a  slice  soon,  for  both  are  hungry  for  a  meal, 
even  if  it  is  not  as  big  as  the  bear's.  The  way  these 
three  Christian  brothers  behaved  when  our  two  little 
peace  ships  sailed  into  Chifu  harbor,  with  the  peace 
negotiations  finished,  was  more  like  a  scene  on  the 
stage,  or  what  you  call  opera  bouffe,  than  any  one 
could  imagine.  In  size,  our  twin  ships  were  as  '  babes 
in  the  wood  '  compared  to  giants.  While  the  English 
and  Americans  treated  us  with  politeness,  and  the  offi- 
cers of  the  United  States  gunboat  Machias  and  the 
British  war  vessel  Edgar  made  polite  calls,  the  Rus- 
sians, French,  and  Germans  got  up  monkey  shines 
or  a  bear  dance.  Indeed,  I  hardly  know  what  to  say 
to  their  tomfoolery." 

"  Tell  me  what  they  did,"  said  Clarence. 


234  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

"  Well,  in  the  harbor  there  was  a  big  Russian  fleet, 
—  ten  men-of-war,  two  torpedo  destroyers,  and  one 
torpedo-boat,  —  and  there  were  also  one  French  and 
two  German  warships.  The  other  vessels  were  two 
British,  one  American,  and  one  Italian.  The  Rus- 
sian men-of-war  had  doffed  their  white  paint  of 
peace  times  and  put  on  the  lead  color  which  means 
service  for  war ;  and,  what  do  you  think  ?  They  were 
all  cleared  for  action,  as  if  ready  for  battle.  They 
kept  firing  blank  cartridges,  covering  the  whole  sea 
with  a  pall  of  smoke,  and  evidently  were  going 
through  a  kind  of  sham  battle.  The  German  and 
French  war  vessels,  taking  their  cue  from  the  Rus- 
sians, like  jackals  from  a  lion,  played  the  same  game. 
You  can  imagine  the  noise. 

"  All  this  was  intended  to  have  an  impressive  effect 
upon  us,  who  had  come  purposely  and  unostenta- 
tiously in  two  little  steamers  into  the  harbor  of  Chifu. 
Evidently  the  three  allied  Powers  had  expected  the 
Japanese  fleet,  and  therefore  prepared  for  action 
and  made  a  tremendous  bluster.  When  the  British 
and  American  officers  saw  these  bellicose  prepara- 
tions, they  laughed  in  their  sleeves,  and  you  may  be 
sure  that  we  did." 

"  You  Japanese  have  made  China  pay  heavily  for 
her  '  ride  on  a  tiger.'  Besides  getting  Formosa,  which, 
by  all  the  rules  of  geodesy  and  geography,  as  well  as 
ethnology  and  politics,  ought  to  belong  to  Japan,  you 


THE  SWORD-SHRINE  AT  NIKKO.         23$ 

will  have  a  good  round  sum  in  gold  and  silver. 
What  do  you  people  expect  to  do  with  this  indem- 
nity money  ? " 

"  Only  one  thing,"  said  Masaro ;  "buy  the  best  war 
vessels  that  Great  Britain  or  the  United  States  can 
build  for  us.  These  Christian  nations  are  setting  us 
such  a  good  example,  you  know." 

"Correct,  chum,"  said  Clarence  Burnham ;  "Japan 
has  a  right  to  protect  herself  from  sham  Christianity, 
which  is  worse  than  paganism.  Between  the  super- 
stition that  makes  the  imaginary  '  yellow  peril '  a  pre- 
text for  robbery  of  one  nation  and  the  seizure  of 
another's  land,  and  the  land  hunger  of  the  big  em- 
pire of  the  bear  that  menaces,  perhaps,  the  very 
existence  of  your  country,  I  should  advise  you  to 
arm." 

"Yes,  that's  what  one  of  your  best  missionaries 
advised  us,  years  ago,  to  do.  Yet  I  hate  war,  and 
my  experiences  at  Ping  Yang  have  so  affected  me 
that  I  have  not  been  content  to  rest  till  I  made  my 
pilgrimage  to  the  sword-shrine  of  Nikko  and  there 
threw  down,  as  a  sacrifice  to  Heaven,  the  revolver 
which  I  used  to  kill  a  man,  even  though  it  were  in 
self-defence." 

"  Indeed,"  cried  Clarence,  "  I  have  heard  of  that 
shrine  and  have  long  wanted  to  see  it." 

In  truth,  Masaro's  mind  had  been  so  wrought  up 
by  the  scenes  of  war,  the  "  battle,  murder,  and  sud- 


236  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

den  death  "  that  he  had  witnessed  in  Korea,  that 
remembrance  of  it  had  become  misery.  His  con- 
science, as  well  as  his  dreams,  was  troubled  by  the 
thought  of  the  awful  slaughter  of  human  beings.  He 
felt,  in  a  measure,  the  dreadfulness  of  war  resting  on 
him,  as  one  who  had  "consented  unto"  what  was  done. 

Nor  did  the  thought  that  he  had  killed  a  man, 
even  in  self-defence,  under  the  rules  that  govern 
warfare  and  regulate  the  justifiable  taking  of  human 
life,  ease  greatly  his  burden.  Keeping  the  revolver 
with  which  he  had  saved  his  own  life,  while  yet  tak- 
ing that  of  another  man,  he  never  used  it  again,  even 
in  sport  or  for  practice.  Considering  it  devoted  to 
a  sacred  purpose,  he  laid  it  away  until  the  oppor- 
tunity to  sacrifice  it  to  Heaven  should  come. 

Masaro  was  still  a  thorough  Japanese,  even  though 
he  had  learned  of  Christianity,  not  only  by  his  own 
inquiry,  reading,  and  study,  but  by  attending  for  some 
months  one  of  the  missionary  schools  in  Tokio.  There, 
besides  learning  English,  he  had  taken  a  course  in  Chris- 
tian ethics,  being  most  profoundly  impressed  with  the 
teaching  of  Christianity  in  regard  to  the  forgiveness 
of  offences,  the  eschewing  of  revenge,  and  the  neces- 
sity of  personal  chastity  and  of  unfaltering  truth. 
He  was  not  a  Christian,  in  the  sense  of  accepting 
either  the  popular  form  of  its  doctrines  or  the  general 
scheme  of  its  history,  traditions,  and  claims.  Fur- 
thermore, it  was  still  a  mystery  to  him  why  Christian 


THE   SWORD-SHRINE   AT   NIKKO.          237 

nations  were,  or  seemed  to  be,  so  bloodthirsty  in  their 
practice. 

Yet  despite  the  contradiction  between  the  theory 
and  the  practice  of  foreigners,  he  honored,  yes, 
almost  in  will  as  well  as  heart,  loved  the  Founder. 
Somehow,  that  idea  of  the  sacredness  of  human  life 
and  the  prohibitions  against  taking  it  needlessly  had 
actually  modified  his  thought  and  made  him,  in  so 
far,  a  follower  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  notwithstand- 
ing that  the  training  received  in  his  childhood  and 
the  teachings  absorbed  by  him  were  still  powerful. 
He  could  not  yet  abandon  the  idea  that  "  the  gods  " 
watched  especially  over  his  beloved  country.  He 
had  still  a  vague  notion  of  "  Heaven"  as  an  imper- 
sonal mass  of  forces,  or  bundle  of  laws.  He  had 
not  yet  reached  the  idea  of  there  being  but  one  Law- 
giver, able  to  save  or  to  destroy,  or  of  one  Father, 
who  was  love.  To  him  the  gods  were  simply  a  greater 
sort  of  men,  who,  like  himself,  were  servants  of  law, 
limited,  and  bound  to  obey. 

His  feelings  on  the  side  of  inheritance  were  beau- 
tifully expressed  in  the  ancient  ode,  which  in  733, 
A.D.,  some  admirer  wrote  of  the  Japanese  prince, 
envoy  to  China. 

"  In  the  great  days  of  old, 
When  o'er  the  land  the  gods  held  sovVign  sway, 

Our  fathers  lov'd  to  say 
That  the  bright  gods  with  tender  care  enfold 

The  fortunes  of  Japan, 


238  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

Blessing  the  land  with  many  an  holy  spell ; 

And  what  they  loved  to  tell, 
We  of  this  later  age  ourselves  do  prove ; 

For  every  living  man 
May  feast  his  eyes  on  tokens  of  their  love." 

Like  a  true  Japanese,  intensely  matter-of-fact,  even 
when  most  intellectual  or  aesthetic,  Masaro  felt  that 
he  could  be  freed  of  the  remorse  which  tortured  him, 
by  some  act  of  self-sacrifice.  He  hoped  that  between 
the  two  systems  of  thought,  to  both  of  which  he  was 
trying  to  render  allegiance,  he  would  find  peace  by 
action.  In  his  country's  history  he  had  read  of  the 
sinner  Endo,  who  had  stood  naked  under  the  water- 
fall in  winter,  in  order  to  purge  his  conscience  and 
ease  the  torture  which  had  come  because  of  crime. 
Even  though  injustice  to  another  had  been  done 
through  mistake,  the  true  penitent  felt  it  necessary 
to  suffer,  yes,  gladly  welcomed  torture. 

To-day,  after  centuries,  the  example  of  Endo  lent 
argument  to  Masaro's  hopes  of  winning  peace  through 
penitence  and,  if  necessary,  pain.  Had  he  not  read 
also  of  Naozane,  the  bearded  warrior,  who,  having 
driven  a  sword  through  his  foe  and  discovered  the 
features  of  the  boy,  Adzumori,  some  mother's  dar- 
ling, was  seized  with  remorse  and  became  a  monk  ? 

So,  at  the  first  opportunity,  on  reaching  his  native 
soil,  Masaro  set  put  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  famous 
shrine  of  Nikko,  Was  it,  do  you  ask,  to  look  upon 


THE   SWORD-SHRINE   AT   NIKKO.          239 

wonders  of  color,  the  marvellous  fretted  ceilings  and 
carven  work,  the  image  of  the  cat,  masterpiece  of  the 
left-handed  carver,  Jingoro  ?  No  !  Was  it  to  stand 
on  the  famous  mountain  Nantaisan  for  scenery,  or  to 
scan  the  glorious  waterfall  of  Chiuzenji  ?  No  ! 

When  at  the  end  of  his  journey  Masaro  arrived  at 
Nikko,  he  went  far  up  on  the  great  mountain  side,  to 
the  highest  point  in  that  cluster  of  hills.  Finding 
the  pathway  marked  by  the  red-painted  torii,  or 
sacred  gateways,  he  passed  through  these  clear  up 
to  the  summit,  where  stood  a  very  modest  shrine. 
Near  by,  or  just  beyond,  was  a  bare  rock,  standing 
on  which  he  could  look  down  over  a  steep  precipice, 
seventy  feet  in  depth.  Bowing  reverently  before  the 
shrine,  he  clapped  his  hands  in  the  method  of  prayer, 
as  in  the  presence  of  Deity.  He  called  on  Heaven 
to  forgive  the  sins  which  he  had  unwittingly  com- 
mitted, and  grant  him  greater  purity  and  earnestness 
in  life.  He  prayed  also  that  the  memory  of  what  he 
had  seen  on  the  bloody  battle-field,  and  of  the  black- 
ened and  festering  corpses,  might  pass  away. 

"  O  gods  of  Japan,  one  and  all,  or  One  Living 
and  True  God,  if  so  thou  art,  receive  this  in  proof  of 
my  sincerity,  and  accept  it  in  sacrifice." 

Saying  this  final  word  he  drew  his  revolver, 
reversed  it,  and  letting  it  fly  from  his  hold  on  the 
barrel  end,  he  hurled  it  far  from  him.  It  struck  the 
fragment  of  a  sword  sticking  in  the  ground  as  if 


240  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

growing  there,  and  then  went  clanking  in  among  the 
rusty  tokens  of  many  a  bygone  deed  of  vengeance  or 
blood. 

Yes,  here  indeed  was  a  scene  to  touch  the  imagina- 
tion, and  one  that  showed  that  while  Japan  is  the 
home  of  the  sword,  and  often  of  the  murderer's 
sword  also,  it  is  the  home  of  conscience.  The  agony 
of  the  human  spirit  is  known  here,  nor  does  the 
Japanese  heart  differ  in  its  workings  in  the  island 
empire  from  those  in  the  world  at  large. 

Here  lay,  and  had  lain  for  centuries,  the  blades, 
once  crimson-stained,  of  the  murderer  and  assassin, 
and  of  the  avenger  of  blood  as  well  as  of  the  killer 
of  man  for  sport,  or  for  treachery,  or  in  mistaken 
honor.  While  Japan  proudly  boasts  that  hers  is  the 
"country  ruled  by  the  slender  sword,"  in  contempt 
of  the  heavy,  cleaver-like  blades  of  the  Chinese  and 
barbarians,  yet  that  sword  in  the  hands  of  individuals 
has  been  too  often  drawn  in  hasty  wrath,  in  hot  hate, 
and  in  cold  treachery. 

This  shrine,  with  its  hundreds  of  old  sword  blades, 
some  of  them  hardly  more  now  than  masses  of  rust, 
testified  to  the  power  of  conscience.  It  showed  that 
men  heard  the  voice  of  God,  —  call  Him  by  what 
name  we  will,  —  and  that  this  voice  spoke  with  no 
uncertain  sound.  On  the  bare  rock  in  winter,  half 
buried  under  the  snow,  in  summer  kissed  by  the 
breezes  that  blow  over  all  lonely  places,  exposed  to 


THE   SWORD-SHRINE   AT   NIKKO.          241 

rain  and  sunshine,  were  hundreds  of  sword  blades. 
They  were  cast  down  on  the  earth  that  had  drank 
the  blood  once  foully  shed  by  men  who  in  some 
cases  brought  these  proofs  of  a  lashing  conscience 
hundreds  of  miles.  Here  the  pilgrim,  tormented  by 
remorse  and  seeking  surcease  of  agony,  had  finished 
his  pilgrimage,  and  calling  on  the  gods  for  forgive- 
ness had  flung  away  the  hated  blade  in  expiation 
of  his  crime. 

Had  they  tongues,  what  terrible  tales  some  of  these 
bits  of  steel  edged  iron  could  tell !  How  significant 
were  these  blades  of  the  fact  that  the  barbarism  of 
the  past,  the  devilish  pride  that  cherished  the  sword 
as  the  main  source  of  manly  spirit  was  over !  How 
prophetic  of  the  new  era  was  it  that,  amidst  the  relics 
which  for  a  thousand  years  had  symbolized  at  once 
Japan's  highest  pride  and  oldest  methods  of  war, 
there  should  lie  to-day  the  shining  steel  barrels,  the 
silver-mounted  handle,  and  the  American  stamped 
letters  telling  of  new  lands,  new  forces,  and  new 
ways  of  taking  life,  while  yet  the  old  conscience 
should  burn  and  sting ! 

It  was  some  weeks  after  this  episode  of  the 
pocket  pistol,  cast  ex  voto  among  the  samurai's 
swords  on  the  lonely  mountain,  that  Masaro  met  and 
called  upon  Clarence  Burnham. 

As  the  conversation  went  on,  both  men  found 
themselves  in  a  mood  to  gratify  their  desire  for  a 


242  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

little  literary  dalliance,  so  that  when  Clarence  pro- 
posed a  way  to  spend  the  evening,  Masaro  gladly 
accepted. 

"  There  is  at  present  in  the  capital  a  famous  story- 
teller from  Tosa.  In  addition  to  the  old  stock  of 
classic  stories  he  has  some  fresh  ones,  famous  in 
southern  Japan." 

"  Let's  go  and  hear  him,  by  all  means,"  said 
Masaro. 

So,  mounting  the  train  for  Tokio,  the  two  young 
men  rode  to  the  capital  city,  and  going  at  once  to 
one  of  the  well-known  halls  on  the  Ginza,  they  heard 
the  following  narrative. 


.      CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE   DRAGON-GUARDED    JEWEL. 

ABOUT  two  hundred  people,  most  of  them 
males,  a  few  of  the  men  in  foreign  clothes, 
and  all  the  females  in  Japanese  costume, 
were  gathered  to  hear  the  new  story-teller  in  the 
capital.  Clarence  could  not  help  noticing  the  dif- 
ference in  the  impression  made  on  him  by  a  bird's- 
eye  view,  as  he  stood  up.  Instead  of  the  gun-hammer 
top-knots  and  shaven  scalps  always  seen  in  his  boy- 
hood's days,  when  he  listened  as  the  hanashiki  of 
Hiogo  told  their  stories,  now  all  the  men  and  boys 
wore  their  hair  cropped  in  the  Western  style. 

The  story-teller  made  his  bow,  cleared  his  throat, 
rapped  with  his  fan  on  his  tiny  box  desk,  and  pre- 
pared to  tell  of  the  Dragon-guarded  Jewel  of  a  Thou- 
sand Rays.  His  eye  caught  that  of  the  foreigner 
among  the  scores  of  upturned  faces,  and  with  the 
inner  eye  fixed  upon  the  possible  silver  coin  to  be 
found  among  the  coppers,  when  the  lacquer  box  went 
round  for  collection,  he  proceeded.  This  time,  for 
the  foreigner's  sake,  he  made  use  of  more  explanation 

243 


244  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

than  was  his  wont  when  before  purely  native  auditors. 
His  elocution  was  as  fine  as  his  language  was  stately 
and  sonorous.  All  his  strong  points  were  emphasized 
with  lively  taps  of  the  fan  on  his  desk. 

"All  over  Japan,"  said  he,  "the  images  of  the 
gentle  Buddha  attract  myriads  of  devotees.  Sculp- 
tured in  stone  and  set  outdoors  in  rain  and  tempest, 
in  calm  and  sunshine,  or  enshrined  beneath  golden- 
fretted  roofs  of  mighty  temples,  they  are  always  in 
front  of  a  praying  throng.  Shaka  Muni,  the  Indian 
prince  who  attained  to  Nirvana,  the  state  in  which  all 
passion  is  absent,  is  the  person  thus  represented  in 
bronze  and  stone.  The  dream  of  perfect  peace  is 
upon  the  calm  features,  the  hands  are  locked,  and 
the  thumbs  touch  in  the  abstraction  of  thought. 
Covering  the  otherwise  naked  head  are  the  thousand 
curls.  These  represent  the  mass  of  cooling  snails 
which  were  sent  to  protect  the  exposed  head  of  the 
meditating  prince.  Resting  upon  his  limbs,  with 
crossed  feet,  their  soles  upward  to  the  sky,  the  figure 
is  that  of  him  who  sits,  not  to  move,  but  only  to  be 
lost  in  thought. 

"  While  both  the  praying  devotee,  who,  boasting  his 
birth  in  our  holy  country  would  know  the  history  of 
his  cult,  and  the  honorable  alien,  who  admires  our 
Oriental  and  native  art,  alike  note  these  points  of 
which  I  have  spoken,  that  which  most  strikes  their 
attention  is  the  jewel  set  in  the  forehead  of  Great 


i  OF  TH£        T 

.UNIVERSITY 


THE   DRAGON-GUARDED   JEWEL.          245 

Buddha.  From  this,  to  the  enraptured  worshipper 
in  hours  of  ecstasy,  flash  the  radiant  beams  which 
betoken  answer  to  prayer.  It  is  the  symbol  of  illumi- 
nation, of  perfect  freedom  attained,  of  Buddha's  be- 
ing made  the  recipient  and  distributer  of  blessings. 
On  the  great  bronze  image  at  Kamakura,  I  may  add, 
the  huge  silver  boss  on  the  head  measures  over  a 
yard  in  diameter,  and  contains  thirty  pounds  of  the 
white  precious  metal. 

"  Yet  of  all  the  gems  or  studs,  gold  or  fringing 
jewels,  which  art  and  devotion  have  set  in  the  images 
of  Buddha  in  Everlasting  Great  Japan,  none  can  for 
a  moment,  throughout  all  the  ages,  be  compared  with 
the  resplendent  jewel  in  the  forehead  of  the  Buddha 
in  the  Temple  of  Illustrious  Joy  in  our  mediaeval  city 
of  Nara. 

"  This  was  a  crystal  of  purest  water,  with  a  radiancy 
like  fire,  containing  within  itself  an  image  of  Shaka 
Muni,  the  features  of  whom,  turned  in  whatever  way, 
could  always  be  seen.  No  matter  to  what  point  of 
the  compass,  or  to  what  direction  of  zenith  or  abyss 
the  holder  should  turn  the  precious  ball,  the  benign 
image  of  the  Buddha  smiled  on  the  spectator.  No 
wonder  it  was  called  the  '  thousand-taced  gem.' 

"  How  it  came  to  Everlasting  Great  Japan  is  told 
in  the  story,  now  over  a  thousand  years  old,  related 
for  centuries  in  Tosa,  under  the  paper-shaded  evening 
lamp  or  around  the  mid-floor  hearth,  and  handed 


246  IN  THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

down  to  delighted  generations.  No  copy,  my  honor- 
able auditors,  in  print,  is  known  ;  but  the  manuscripts 
have  been  the  joy  of  scholars  and  copyists  for  cen- 
turies. The  artists  of  the  Tosa  school,  with  their 
brilliant  and  miniature-like  finish,  have  revelled  in 
depicting  its  marvellous  scenes.  Variant  as  are  the 
details  of  the  story,  the  true  version,  the  classic  nar- 
rative, is  that  which  I  give  herewith. 

"  Long,  long  ago,  when  the  precious  doctrine  of 
Shaka  was  new  in  the  realm  of  our  Lord,  the  Mikado, 
whose  rule  is  unbroken  from  ages  eternal  —  " 

"  Banzai !  Banzai !  "  shouted  the  whole  assembly  in 
chorus,  while  two  small  boys  waved  the  sun  flag. 

The  story-teller  smiled  to  the  people,  and  bowed 
toward  the  imperial  palace.  Then  he  resumed  :  — 

"  When  both  scriptures  and  images  of  the  Eternal 
Buddha  were  rare,  there  lived  in  Nara  a  great  noble 
of  high  rank  and  of  immemorial  lineage.  Dressed  in 
flowing  robes,  and  with  tablet  of  pure  white  wood  on 
which  to  note  down  every  command  and  desire  of 
the  Emperor,  he  was  regarded  with  veneration  by  all 
the  court  and  people,  and  received  distinguished 
marks  of  honor  from  the  son  of  the  gods,  who  made 
him  his  prime  minister.  His  name  was  Kamatari. 
Being  a  very  pious  man,  he  made  a  pilgrimage  to  the 
far  east  of  Japan,  on  the  great  plain  on  which  Tokio 
now  stands,  but  then  a  very  wild  region.  In  a  dream 
he  was  commanded  by  the  Kami,  or  god,  to  bury  or 


THE   DRAGON-GUARDED   JEWEL.          247 

lay  in  store,  in  the  hillside,  a  precious  sickle  which  he 
carried  with  him.  He  did  so,  and  his  descendants 
ruled  the  district  of  Kamakura,  or  sickle  storehouse, 
for  many  generations. 

"  Kamatari  had  a  daughter  whose  beauty  and 
accomplishments  were  the  pride  of  Nara.  The  great 
Chinese  Emperor,  Tai  Tsing,  of  the  ever  famed  Tang 
dynasty  (618-905  A.D.),  hearing  of  the  fair  lady, 
sought  her  hand  in  marriage.  And  so  the  maiden 
crossed  the  stormy  seas,  and  amid  great  splendor  and 
pomp  was  married  to  the  sovereign  lord  of  the 
Middle  Kingdom  and  became  Empress  of  the  realm. 
Yet,  far  away  from  her  beautiful  home-land,  the  prin- 
cess at  times  yearned  for  a  sight  of  the  solemn  groves 
and  pretty  flower-gardens  of  Nara,  and  longed  again 
to  be  under  her  father's  roof.  To  heal  the  cravings 
of  homesickness,  she  resolved  to  found  a  temple  in 
her  native  land  and  dedicate  it  to  Buddha.  The 
diversion  of  collecting  rare  and  beautiful  objects  to 
adorn  the  temple  would  thus  occupy  her  mind  and 
drive  away  that  heart  pain,  which  every  son  and 
daughter  of  our  beautiful  Japan  feels  when  absent 
from  our  holy  country. 

"  So  for  years  she  gathered  rare  treasures  together. 
Whenever  she  heard  of  the  work  of  a  famous  artist, 
or  carver  in  jade  or  crystal,  or  precious  gems  and 
metals,  near  or  far,  she  would  call  him  to  the  palace 
to  see  his  work,  often  making  choice  of  what  was  the 


248  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

costliest  and  hardest  to  obtain.  Fortunately,  she 
heard  of  the  wonderful  jewel  in  India  which  con- 
tained the  thousand-fold  view  of  the  Eternal  Buddha, 
and  secured  it ;  and  this  completing  her  treasure,  she 
determined  at  once  to  fit  out  a  ship  and  send  it  to  her 
father  in  Japan. 

"  For  this  purpose  she  selected  the  most  faithful 
and  trusted  of  her  retainers,  whose  name  was  Manko. 
He,  on  his  part,  vowed  in  presence  of  the  princess, 
and  in  the  names  of  all  the  gods  of  Everlasting  Great 
Japan,  to  defend  the  jewel  from  all  enemies  above  or 
below  the  surface  of  the  sea,  and  to  deliver  it  safely. 

"  Yet,  even  the  bravest  of  men  cannot  foresee  the 
future.  No  sooner  was  it  known  that  this  jewel,  re- 
nowned throughout  all  India  and  China,  was  to  be 
made  an  offering  in  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Sage  and 
to  be  set  in  the  forehead  of  his  image,  than  the  mon- 
arch of  the  world  under  the  sea  was  roused  to  jeal- 
ousy and  wrath.  Kai  Riu  O,  the  dragon  sea-king, 
reigned  over  the  empire  of  Riugu,  which  was  beneath 
the  waves.  His  host  consisted  of  thousands  of  drag- 
ons, each  one  able  to  sink  a  ship  and  devour  its  crew. 
Some  of  these  terrible  creatures  were  a  hundred  feet 
long  and  breathed  fire  out  of  their  mouths.  With 
claws  like  steel,  and  tails  with  the  power  of  a  wind- 
lass wound  by  a  thousand  men,  they  were  besides 
equipped  with  every  means  of  defence  known  to  bird, 
beast,  or  fish.  The  dragon-king,  irritated  and  envious, 


THE   DRAGON-GUARDED   JEWEL.  249 

even  made  alliance  with  the  king  of  the  demons  in 
the  lowest  hell,  called  Asura,  and  resolved  to  capture 
the  jewel.  Instead  of  gracing  the  image  and  temple 
of  Buddha  for  the  blessing  of  mankind,  Kai  Riu  O 
determined  that  the  thousand-rayed  jewel  should 
adorn  his  shrine  in  Riugu.  Thus  would  he  add  to 
the  treasures  which  every  year  came  to  him  by  ship- 
wreck and  loss,  for  Kai  Riu  O  was  and  is  no  friend 
of  man." 

"  Ay,  ay,  true,  true,"  spoke  out  not  a  few  in  the 
audience  at  this  reference  to  the  very  much  alive  and 
active  being  under  the  waves. 

"  Namu  Amida  Butsu  "  (save  us,  Eternal  Buddha), 
murmured  a  score  of  voices,  and  one  old  woman 
actually  took  out  her  beads  to  pray  by  counts. 

Piously  bowing,  the  story-teller,  glad  to  be  thus 
interrupted,  continued :  — 

"  So  amid  the  plaudits  and  good  wishes  of  the 
Empress's  Japanese  servants  left  behind,  and  sped 
by  her  prayers,  Manko  hoisted  sail  and  made  toward 
the  rising  sun.  Escaping  first  the  dangers  of  the 
sea,  he  reached  a  famous  place  between  the  two 
countries  to  which  shipwrecks,  many  and  sad,  had 
given  an  evil  reputation.  This  time,  however,  the 
alertness  and  skilful  seamanship  of  Manko  were 
bringing  his  vessel  safely  through  all  natural  dangers, 
when,  suddenly,  the  ship  was  attacked  by  a  host  of 
demons. 


250  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

"  Without  quailing  for  an  instant,  Manko  and  his 
men,  armed  to  the  full,  joined  battle  with  the  demons, 
and  with  their  trusty  blades  put  the  infernal  host  to 
flight.  Then,  victorious,  the  ship  moved  on,  and 
soon  the  green  shores  of  our  Four-countries  Island 
loomed  up  before  them.  Already  they  were  begin- 
ning to  smell  the  fragrant  odor  of  the  woodfires 
wafted  seaward  from  the  cottages.  In  imagination 
they  even  feasted,  amid  home  joys,  on  the  tender 
young  rice,  when  a  strange  object  upon  the  water 
met  their  view." 

At  this  point  the  narrator  made  a  dead  pause  and 
down  came  his  iron-riveted  fan  with  a  tremendous 
whack  upon  the  desk.  "  Now,  honorable  sirs,"  said 
he,  "  all  who  would  hear  what  next  happened  will 
kindly  cast  their  gifts  into  the  lacquered  box  which 
my  attendants  will  present." 

"  It  is  a  case  of  *  to  be  continued  in  our  next,' " 
said  Clarence  Burnham  to  his  companion.  "Well, 
here  goes  ten  sen  (a  dime)  to  cheer  the  old  fellow 
up." 

Casting  a  glance  at  the  offering,  the  story-teller's 
face  beamed  at  sight  of  the  silver.  Bowing  low  in 
thanks,  he  resumed  :  — 

"  It  was  only  a  log."  Here  all  faces  fell  in  dis- 
appointment. "  But  it  had  such  a  curious  look  that 
the  sailors,  despite  their  eagerness  to  get  home, 
stopped  the  vessel  and  brought  the  timber  on  board. 


THE   DRAGON-GUARDED  JEWEL.          251 

With  one  blow  of  the  axe,  the  tree  trunk  was  split 
open,  when,  lo !  a  lady  of  amazing  loveliness,  attired 
in  the  splendor  of  court  robes,  stepped  out." 

At  this  all  faces  lightened. 

"  Manko,  the  captain,  saluted  the  maiden  with  the 
gallantry  of  a  true  soldier,  and  at  once  looked  to  her 
comfort.  Strange  to  say,  however,  the  winds  which 
had  thus  far  been  favorable  now  blew  into  their  faces, 
and  the  ship  lay  tossing  about  in  front  of  their 
native  land  ten  days.  The  sight  was  tantalizing  to 
the  seamen.  But  as  for  the  captain,  he  was  so 
wrapped  up  in  the  strange  guest  that  had  come  to 
him  from  the  sea,  that  in  his  passion  of  love  he  for- 
got all  about  his  home  and  his  charge.  Instead  of 
being  a  vigilant  officer,  he  was  now  a  hopeless  lover. 
Indeed,  delay  seemed  only  to  increase  his  passion. 

"  The  fair  lady,  with  all  the  charms  of  the  skilled 
coquette,  put  him  off,  even  professing  that  her  reli- 
gious views  would  not  permit  her  to  accept  his  offers 
of  marriage.  All  this  time,  however,  Manko  was 
becoming  more  hopelessly  a  slave  to  his  infatuation. 
Without  knowing  it,  he  found  that  he  would  give 
anything  in  his  own  possession,  or  intrusted  to  him, 
in  order  to  win  her  hand  and  caresses.  The  artful 
stranger,  luring  him  on  to  betray  his  trust,  made  re- 
quest to  look  at  the  precious  gem.  Mad  with  love, 
he  permitted  her  to  enter  that  part  of  the  vessel 
where  blazed  the  sacred  jewel  in  its  holy  shrine." 


252  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

Down  went  the  faces  of  the  serious  in  the  audi- 
ence, including  an  old  priest,  and  eager  —  even  to 
the  opening  wide  of  many  mouths  —  was  the  desire 
to  hear  more.  The  story  was  getting  hot! 

"  So  artfully  had  the  siren,  for  such  she  was, 
wrought  her  fell  purpose  that  even  after  permitting 
her  to  gaze  upon  the  flashing  jewel,  Manko  took  no 
further  precautions.  Unsuspicious  of  danger,  he 
gave  himself  up  to  the  companionship  of  the  fasci- 
nating lady,  and  would  think  of  nothing  else. 

"  Alas,  alas !  on  the  morning  of  the  fourth  day,  on 
going  to  look  at  the  shrine,  the  jewel  was  gone  !  The 
woman,  too,  had  disappeared.  A  thorough  search 
of  the  ship  failed  to  reveal  her  presence.  The  truth 
was  now  out.  The  dragon-king  of  the  world  under 
the  sea  had  sent  one  of  his  fairest  slaves  to  accom- 
plish his  horrible  purpose.  Where  the  force  of  the 
demons  had  failed,  the  wiles  of  a  woman  had  won." 

"  Namu,  Amida  Butsu,"  groaned  or  murmured  the 
hearers. 

"  For  Manko,  there  was  nothing  to  do  but  to  go 
with  a  face  of  shame  to  Nara  and,  crouching  at  the 
feet  of  his  august  master,  tell  the  whole  story.  As 
for  Kamatari,  though  speechless  with  grief  and  un- 
able to  find  comfort  in  talking  with  any  one  else,  he 
still  cherished  hopes  of  winning  back  the  jewel. 
Resigning  office  and  honors,  he  left  the  imperial 
capital  and  went  down  to  the  place  strangely  named 


THE   DRAGON-GUARDED   JEWEL.          253 

Happy  Point,  near  the  beautiful  Inland  Sea,  and  not 
far  from  the  place  where  the  jewel  and  the  siren  had 
disappeared. 

"  Coming  as  a  stranger  into  this  fisherman's  village, 
he  lived  quietly  in  retirement,  telling  no  man  who  he 
was.  Every  day  he  would  beguile  the  time  by  going 
down  to  the  rocks  on  the  seashore.  There  witness- 
ing the  wonderful  skill  of  the  female  divers,  he  was 
seized  with  a  new  idea.  These  ruddy-cheeked  and 
black-eyed  maidens,  marvellously  lithe  in  limb,  seemed 
at  will  to  sink  like  lead  or  float  like  feathers  on  the 
surface,  as  they  leaped  and  disported  both  above  and 
beneath  the  waves.  Diving  down,  they  brought  up 
great  treasures  of  mother-of-pearl  shells  and  feasted 
upon  their  contents.  For  their  dress,  while  diving, 
they  had  nothing  but  a  girdle  of  woven  straw  around 
their  waists,  while  their  long  black  locks,  as  they  rose 
from  the  sparkling  waves,  flashed  in  the  sun-rays. 

"The  thought  struck  him  —  Can  I  not  find  one  of 
those  fisher  maids,  who,  for  my  sake,  will  be  brave 
enough  to  dive  to  Riugu  and  bring  up  for  me  the 
precious  jewel? 

"Praying  to  the  gods  to  direct  him  in  his  choice, 
he  became  acquainted  with  a  young  girl  of  great 
beauty,  who  excelled  all  the  other  female  divers  in 
courage  and  skill.  He  made  love  to  her,  and  they 
were  married.  For  three  years  the  pair  lived  hap- 
pily together,  and  then  Kamatari,  believing  it  was 


254  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

time  to  propose  the  daring  venture,  disclosed  to  her 
the  secret  of  his  rank. 

"  Meanwhile  a  son  had  been  born  to  them,  for 
whom  the  mother  expected  nothing  else  than  a  fisher- 
man's life.  When,  however,  she  found  her  husband 
was  a  great  noble,  with  the  blood  of  the  gods  in  his 
veins,  she  was  filled  with  shame.  Why  should  she 
live  with  so  great  a  man  ?  For  when  he  should  re- 
turn to  his  palace  in  Nara,  and  to  the  company  of 
the  lords  and  ladies  of  the  court,  would  he  not  cast 
her  off  ?  In  spite  of  all  her  husband's  entreaties,  she 
resolved  to  end  her  life. 

"  Kamatari,  unable  to  turn  her  from  her  purpose, 
now  made  revelation  of  the  object  of  his  marriage, 
telling  her  that  if  she  still  persisted  in  ending  her 
life,  it  were  better  first  to  attempt  the  recovery  of  the 
gem,  and  not  to  sacrifice  her  life  uselessly. 

"  '  Procure,"  said  he,  '  the  Thousand-rayed  Jewel, 
and  life  will  be  well  sacrificed.  Buddha  will  surely 
take  to  his  bosom  one  who  has  perilled  her  all  in 
behalf  of  his  glory  and  honor.  Furthermore,  if 
successful,  our  son  shall  be  made  a  noble,  and  inherit 
name  and  rank  ! ' 

"  This  appeal  and  promise  touched  the  fisher  girl's 
heart.  Without  speaking  a  word,  she  rushed  up  to 
the  cliffs  and  leaped  into  the  sea,  the  sparkling  waves 
closing  over  her.  Hour  after  hour  passed  over  the 
anxious  watcher  on  the  rocks.  Sunset  came,  and 


THE   DRAGON-GUARDED   JEWEL.          255 

yet  his  wife  was  invisible.  The  next  day  there  was 
no  sign,  and  so  the  sun  rose  seven  times,  and  was 
again  nearing  the  western  sky,  when  suddenly  there 
rose  up  from  the  water  his  wife.  Haggard,  weary, 
exhausted,  and  in  despair,  she  had  come  back  alone. 
With  empty  hands  and  weeping  eyes  she  told  the  sad 
story.  She  had  found  out  where  the  jewel  was  pre- 
served, far  down  in  the  realm  of  the  dragon-king  of 
the  world  under  the  sea.  Horrible  dragons  guarded 
the  shrine,  and  none  could  approach  because  of  their 
fire-breathing  eyes  and  steel-like  claws. 

"  Nevertheless,  Kamatari  gratefully  thanked  his 
spouse,  and,  cheering  her,  led  her  home  and  to 
rest  until  her  strength  was  restored. 

"  The  noble  lord,  not  yet  disheartened,  gave  him- 
self up  to  thought.  He  considered  every  cunning 
plan  to  beguile  the  monsters  from  their  vigilance  and 
to  decoy  them  from  the  shrine.  He  knew  that  music 
had  a  marvellous  effect  upon  dragons.  Whenever 
the  musicians  of  the  imperial  band  played,  the  drag- 
ons, visible  or  invisible,  were  sure  to  gather  from  all 
sides  to  gambol  and  play  in  unison  with  the  notes. 
So,  redoubling  his  exertions,  Kamatari  secured  from 
Nara  a  company  of  the  imperial  musicians,  who  with 
flute  and  drum  and  flageolet  and  dulcimer  made 
sweetest  harmony.  He  had  a  phoenix-pro  wed  barge 
built,  on  the  deck  of  which  were  properly  set  up  and 
hung,  from  the  wings  of  the  phoenix  prow  to  the 


256  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

inside  dip  of  the  long  tiller,  the  brocade  curtains, 
marked  with  the  Emperor's  crest  exactly  as  in  the 
Mikado's  palace.  Arrayed  in  their  sun  helmets  and 
in  their  official  robes,  the  musicians  gathered  on  the 
bow,  near  the  crest  of  the  phcenix,  and  prepared  to 
render  their  sweetest  strains. 

"  The  diver-wife  on  her  part,  being  now  restored 
to  perfect  strength,  accompanied  her  husband  in  a 
fisherman's  boat  of  the  ordinary  build.  She  had  on 
only  her  straw  girdle  apron,  but  to  the  belt  she  fas- 
tened securely  the  end  of  a  long  rope,  which  her  hus- 
band and  his  assistants  were  to  hold,  while  she  dived 
down  into  Riugu.  For  illumination  under  the 
waves,  she  set  a  light-giving  crystal  in  the  hair  of 
her  forehead ;  in  her  right  hand  she  grasped  a  long, 
double-edged  knife.  Then  all  being  ready,  and  the 
choir  of  musicians  upon  the  phcenix  barge  bursting 
out  with  their  sweetest  strains,  she  plunged  beneath 
the  sparkling  waves. 

******** 
""Another  offering,  gentlemen,  else  I  cannot  go  on. 
It  is  a  great  strain  on  voice  and  emotions  to  tell  this 
story  of  the  Thousand-rayed  Jewel.  I  alone  in 
Tokio  have  the  correct  manuscript."  With  a  bow 
and  a  rap  of  the  fan,  the  story-teller  again  launched 
forth  the  money-scoop,  which,  after  a  few  minutes, 
returned  to  port  with  a  cargo  of  copper,  richer  than 
before.  He  at  once  resumed. 


THE   DRAGON-GUARDED   JEWEL.          257 

"At  the  first  sound  of  the  music,  which  penetrated 
below  the  surface  of  the  sea  to  the  lair  of  the  drag- 
ons, these  monsters,  both  the  sentinels  before  the 
shrine  and  the  reserves,  swam  upward  and  gathered 
on  all  sides  of  the  floating  barge  whence  the  music 
proceeded.  There  they  listened  and  played.  So 
utterly  fascinated  by  the  sweet  sounds  were  they  that 
they  forgot  all  that  went  on  below  in  Riugu. 

"  The  diving  mother  swam  downward  beneath  the 
waves,  on  and  on,  for  thousands  of  leagues.  The 
jewel  in  her  forehead  shone  by  its  own  light,  illumi- 
nating her  path,  until  at  last,  in  eagerness  and  still  in 
strength,  she  reached  Riugu.  She  entered  where  the 
temples  and  pagodas  stood,  adorned  with  the  shippo, 
or  seven  precious  jewels,  —  pink,  coral,  amber,  mother- 
of-pearl,  emerald,  agate,  pearls  and  crystal,  besides 
gold  and  silver.  It  was  entirely  deserted.  There  in 
the  centre  flashed  out  the  thousand-rayed  jewel  stone. 
She  seized  the  precious  gem,  swam  out,  and  hastened 
to  return. 

"Alas!  soon  she  felt  her  woman's  strength  was 
failing.  To  make  sure  of  success,  she  pulled  vio- 
lently the  rope  attached  to  her  waist,  as  a  signal  that 
she  needed  help.  Yet  though  Kamatari  and  his  ser- 
vants hauled  in  the  rope  with  all  their  might,  it 
seemed  to  the  almost  despairing  woman  that  she 
could  not  succeed.  Though  she  could  hear  the 
music  still  playing,  there  was  a  horrible  dragon,  many 


258  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

rods  in  length,  which,  returning  from  afar  to  the 
shrine  and  finding  it  empty,  sped  after  her  to  seize 
her.  Death  in  the  monster's  jaws  seemed  to  be 
imminent.  Already  she  could  feel  his  fiery  breath 
upon  her  bosom. 

"  Suddenly  it  occurred  to  her  that  the  gods  of  the 
sea  have  a  great  horror  of  corpses.  Even  a  dragon 
will  not  touch  a  dead  body.  Riugu,  while  always 
welcoming  the  wrecked  ships  and  the  costly  mer- 
chandise destroyed  by  the  storms  raised  by  the 
dragon-king  of  the  world  under  the  sea,  does  not  care 
for  dead  bodies.  Many  a  time  had  she  seen  the 
sailors  of  shipwrecked  vessels  and  the  bodies  of  pas- 
sengers, instead  of  being  received  by  the  dragon 
horde,  spewed  out.  Floating  on  the  waves,  or  lining 
the  shore,  these  corpses  showed  with  what  disgust 
the  dragon-king  and  his  dragon  host  regarded  bodies 
in  which  life  was  extinct. 

"The  thought  then  nerved  her  to  the  dreadful 
deed.  If  she  killed  herself,  she  knew  that  the 
dragon  would  not  pursue  her  any  farther.  By  sacri- 
ficing her  life  she  could  save  the  jewel  and  please  her 
husband,  and,  it  might  be,  attain  to  Nirvana  with 
Buddha. 

"  So,  gratifying  herself  for  a  moment  with  an  exult- 
ing laugh  and  defiant  leer  at  the  fire-breathing  dragon, 
she  grasped  the  hilt  of  her  knife,  and,  blade  upward, 
thrust  it  into  her  side.  Then,  in  the  deep  incision, 


THE   DRAGON-GUARDED   JEWEL.          259 

she  hid  the  precious  jewel  within  her  own  body.  The 
flesh  closed  over  the  wound,  but  the  red  blood  upon 
the  water  gave  signal  to  the  dragon  that  it  was  a 
corpse  he  was  pursuing.  Instantly  turning,  he  left 
her,  and  before  a  poisoned  fang  had  entered  her 
body,  Kamatari  and  his  servants  drew  up  his  wife. 
To  their  horror,  it  was  but  a  corpse  that  appeared. 

"  Groaning,  and  in  sincere  grief,  the  nobleman  laid 
the  body  of  his  beloved  wife  upon  the  deck.  Forget- 
ting the  object  of  her  descent,  he  mourned  over  her 
as  lover  and  friend.  Suddenly  he  noticed  under  her 
bosom  a  deep  gash,  and,  on  wiping  away  the  blood, 
he  saw,  shining  amid  the  flesh,  the  precious  jewel. 
Reverently  taking  it  forth,  he  gave  his  beloved  wife 
burial.  Dismissing  the  musicians  with  abundant 
thanks  and  reward,  he  hied  to  his  home  in  Nara. 
There  his  son,  in  due  time,  was  made  noble  and  heir. 

"  So,  at  the  price  of  a  woman's  life,  this  thousand- 
rayed  jewel  was  ransomed  from  the  power  of  the 
infernal  demons,  from  Kai  Riu  O,  and  from  all  the 
dragon  hosts  of  Riugu,  and  was  ready  for  its  resting- 
place.  On  an  auspicious  day,  with  all  solemn  and 
holy  ceremonies,  including  the  reading  of  the  sacred 
sutras  by  a  thousand  priests,  richly  robed,  the  pre- 
cious gem  was  fixed  in  the  brow  of  the  image  of 
Shaka  Muni,  in  the  Temple  of  Illustrious  Joy.  There 
for  centuries  it  remained,  the  peerless  treasure  of  the 
Three  Countries.  In  India,  China,  and  Japan,  there 


260  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

was  no  brow-jewel  like  it,  while  for  ages  it  beamed 
in  radiant  light  upon  the  myriads  who  daily  sought 
help  and  surcease  from  sorrow,  before  the  image 
of  the  Eternally  Enlightened  and  the  Boundlessly 
Compassionate." 

Down  went  the  fan  with  a  clap.  Low  bowed  the 
head  of  the  narrator,  as  the  crowd  broke  out  in  sighs 
of  relief,  or  pious  offerings  of  praise  and  prayer  to 
the  holy  lord  Buddha.  "  Namu  Amida  Butsu," 
"  Namu  miyo  ho  ren  ge"  kio  "  (Glory  be  to  the  holy 
book  of  the  law  which  brings  salvation),  murmured 
one  and  another  of  the  more  pious,  according  as 
they  belonged  to  this  or  that  sect.  More  practical 
folks  made  at  once  for  refreshments  —  the  dumpling, 
broiled  eels,  and  f ruitstands  —  and  regaled  them- 
selves ;  for  long  listening  makes  one  hungry. 

"  Do  you  know,  friend  Burnham,"  said  Masaro, 
"that  this  story,  which  I  have  heard  for  the  first 
time,  has  a  moral  to  me?" 

"  No,  I  cannot  guess  what  it  is.     Tell  me." 

"  I  think  of  my  country,  Japan,  as  a  fair  fisher- 
girl,  diving  into  the  deep  sea  of  new  experiences, 
making  her  way  in  danger  of  the  dragons  or  what 
is  worse  than  these.  Then,  after  seizing  her  rightful 
prize,  she  is  beset  and  pursued  by  a  superior  force. 
She  is  perfectly  willing  to  die  to  her  own  ambition, 
and  to  lose  her  life,  in  order  that  her  child  may  find 
it  in  larger  measure. 


THE   DRAGON-GUARDED   JEWEL.          261 

"  To  give  up  the  prize  won  in  the  war  at  the  behest 
of  the  three  greatest  military  powers  of  the  world, 
and  because  of  the  most  formidable  alliance  re- 
corded in  history,  is  a  very  flattering  proof  of  the 
power  of  Japan  and  the  skill  shown  by  our  land's 
defenders.  .For  the  time  being,  we  have  driven  the 
knife  into  our  hopes  and  killed  the  body  of  our  am- 
bitions. But,  when  there  emerges  again  Japan's 
thousand-rayed  jewel,  our  country's  glories  will  shine, 
not  in  war,  but  in  peace ;  or,  if  in  war  they  must  glit- 
ter, may  the  greater  glory  be  in  peace.  In  any  event, 
our  soldiers  will  never  be  afraid  to  penetrate  to  the 
dragon's  lair.  Yet,  if  Japan  conquers  China  the 
second  time,  may  it  be  by  winning  her  into  the  paths 
of  progress  and  the  world's  civilization." 

"  Amen  !  "  said  Clarence. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

IN    CHINA   AFTER   THE   WAR. 

WE  shall  tell,  farther  on  in  our  story,  how  the 
ferment  of  ideas,  generated  in  Japan  after 
the  astoundingly  successful  war  with  China, 
affected  the  Japanese,  including  Masaro.  Let  us 
now  look  in  Peking,  to  see  how  the  obtuse-nerved 
Chinese  and  the  Manchus,  proud,  insolent,  and 
densely  ignorant,  took  their  beating  —  most  of  them 
by  growing  new  callosity. 

By  this  time  Marian  Hopewell  had  become  thor- 
oughly accustomed  to  the  daily  grooves  of  duty  in 
her  new  work  and  home.  Yet  the  keen  sense  of 
novelty,  in  all  that  she  saw,  was  scarcely  blunted. 

Nevertheless,  she  found  it  beyond  her  powers  to 
fathom  the  depths  or  to  explore  the  recesses  of  the 
Chinese  mind.  The  "  yellow  brain  "  was  not  hers, 
nor  that  of  the  men  she  knew  well.  Her  psychology 
learned  in  college,  enriched  by  reading  and  study 
in  the  best  place  to  observe  certain  phases  of  it,  in 
the  nursery,  failed  to  yield  an  X-ray.  To  her,  the 
"  sacred  river "  of  cogitations  flowing  out  of  the 

262 


IN   CHINA  AFTER  THE   WAR.  263 

ganglions  formed   in  Chinese   brains   during   thirty 

centuries 

"ran 

Through  caverns  measureless  to  man, 
Down  to  a  sunless  sea." 

But  in  the  region  of  the  human  heart,  her  explora- 
tions were  more  successful  and  her  discoveries  more 
joyous. 

She  liked  the  girls  for  their  docility,  quick  obedi- 
ence, and  a  keen  sense  of  personal  modesty  that 
seemed  innate.  She  quickly  picked  up  much  of  the 
spoken  language.  For  practical  purposes,  she  was 
able  to  do  this  far  more  rapidly  by  taking  the  words 
as  they  fell  naturally  from  the  lips  of  the  pupils  than 
from  her  language-teacher,  whose  material  and  meth- 
ods of  speech  were  more  formal.  She  soon  learned 
also  a  dozen  or  score  of  the  jolly  jingles,  or  "  Mother 
Goose  "  nursery  songs,  with  which  the  little  folks  de- 
lighted themselves.  She  gained  more  slowly  some 
knowledge  of  writing.  Even  the  strange  Chinese 
characters  on  the  scrolls  and  wall  pictures  began  to 
glow  and  bloom  with  meaning.  She  began  to  under- 
stand how  it  could  be  that  the  book  language  meant 
almost  nothing  to  the  ear  and  almost  everything  to 
the  eye,  and  why  it  was  that  only  ten  per  cent  of 
the  Chinese  men  could  read  a  book,  and  only  about 
one  in  ten  thousand  of  the  women. 

Outdoors  the  shops  and  shop-signs,  the  buyers  and 


264  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

sellers,  the  animals  and  vehicles,  and  odd  ways  of 
doing  things  amused  her.  In  dry  weather,  the  don- 
keys in  the  carts  and  the  long  trains  of  shaggy, 
funny-faced  camels  made  dust  that  soon  became 
disgusting.  She  soon  learned  to  tell  the  men  from 
different  parts  of  the  empire.  The  Mongols  from 
the  plains,  though  very  good-natured,  looked  quite 
uncouth  and  uncivilized  in  comparison  with  the 
Pekingese.  She  could  quickly  discriminate  also  be- 
tween the  Tartars,  or  Manchius,  and  the  Chinese. 

Six  millions  of  the  people  who  in  1621  marched 
into  China  from  Manchuria,  now  govern  the  three  or 
four  hundred  million  Chinese.  Powerful  as  cavalry- 
men, they  quickly  overran  the  empire,  forcing  the 
Chinese,  who  until  then  wore  topknots,  to  wear  their 
hair  in  a  queue.  Then  the  rough  riders  out  of  the 
plains  established  themselves  in  Peking.  Gradually 
they  yielded  to  luxury,  intermarried  with  the  natives, 
lost  their  language,  and  became  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  as  Chinese  as  the  people  they  conquered. 

"  To  the  end  of  time,  the  Chinese  will  conquer 
every  conqueror  that  conquers  them,"  was  one  of  Dr. 
Clinton's  favorite  remarks. 

Marian  learned  to  distinguish  them  not  only  be- 
cause nearly  all  the  military  officers  and  most  of  the 
soldiers  were  Tartars,  but  because  of  their  striking 
difference  in  face  and  figure.  The  Chinaman  tends 
to  roundness,  has  a  creamy  color  of  skin,  and  a  quiet 


IN   CHINA   AFTER  THE   WAR.  265 

eye.  The  Tartar  is  swarthy  of  complexion,  has  high 
cheek-bones,  is  more  restless,  and  his  eye  seems  more 
alive  and  in  motion. 

What  seemed  very  strange  was  that  while  there 
was  war  going  on,  and  such  heavy  fighting  on  land 
and  sea  reported,  with  the  loss  of  whole  fleets,  armies, 
forts,  and  cities,  Peking  was  very  quiet.  From  the 
home  newspapers  and  from  Japan,  all  the  foreigners 
learned  vastly  more  than  could  be  found  in  the  Eng- 
lish sheets  published  in  the  ports.  Only  a  little  that 
was  trustworthy  could  be  learned  from  the  people  in 
Peking.  Marian  inquired  the  reason  of  this  from  her 
friend,  Dr.  Clinton. 

"  Poor  China  has  no  nerves,  and  the  body  of  the 
giant  cannot  feel  quickly.  The  people  in  the  interior 
cannot  get  at  the  truth,  even  if  they  should  really  want 
to  know  it,  which  I  doubt.  China  is  like  an  alligator. 
I  imagine  one  could  cut  off  the  tip  of  the  reptile's 
tail,  before  its  brain  gave  notice  by  a  thrill  of  pain." 

"  The  telegraph  will  supply  China's  need  in  time, 
I  hope." 

"  Yes,  wires  will  be  as  nerves  and  railways  as 
muscles.  Until  then,  truth  will  have  no  legs  to 
travel  on.  As  for  the  war,  it  is  in  reality  only  the 
struggle  of  a  few  coast  provinces  with  the  Japanese. 
Even  yet,  I  am  sure,  millions  of  Chinamen  do  not 
know  there  is  war  going  on." 

"What?" 


266  IN   THE  MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

"Or,  if  they  do,  they  will  misunderstand  it  in  their 
own  oblique  way.  It  would  be  nearly  impossible 
either  to  transmit  or  to  receive  a  perfectly  plain 
account  of  the  battle  or  campaign.  The  illiterate 
Chinese  in  the  interior  —  there  are  only  about  ten 
per  cent  who  can  read — want  color,  embroidery, 
exaggeration.  The  war  now  is  practically  over;  but 
do  you  know  how  the  average  people  in  the  empire 
read  its  results  ? " 

"  They  know  in  general,  I  suppose,  about  the  defeat 
of  Li  Hung  Chang's  drilled  army  and  the  loss  of 
their  fleet,  do  they  not  ? " 

"  Not  at  all,"  said  Dr.  Clinton,  as  his  eye  twinkled. 
"  This  is  about  the  way  that  one  of  the  learned  men 
or  literati  in  the  villages  will  tell  the  story,  and  also, 
most  probably,  the  way  it  will  take  form  to  posterity. 
Let  me  read  you  from  some  imaginary  popular  book 
of  the  future.  I'll  shut  my  eyes  so  that  I  can  see  it 
more  clearly  —  that  is  the  way  of  the  literati,"  and 
the  doctor  laughed.  "  Hear  ye  from  the  '  Yang-tse 
Pow-wow  '  of  1910  A.D. 

"  In  the  reign  of  our  illustrious  sovereign  Kwang-Su, 
the  Japanese,  or  dwarf  barbarians  of  the  eastern 
sea,  made  piratical  expeditions,  first,  into  our  little 
frontier  state  of  Korea,  and  then  into  our  northeast- 
ern borders  of  Manchuria.  Made  bold  by  their  first 
successes,  they  even  pressed  impudently  toward  the 
capital. 


IN   CHINA  AFTER  THE   WAR.  267 

"  But  their  insolence  soon  met  with  deserved  re- 
buke. The  viceroy,  Li  Hung,  called  out  his  ever 
victorious  army,  and,  sending  his  bravest  generals, 
drove  back  the  Japanese,  drowning  thousands  in  the 
sea.  The  others  were  only  too  glad  to  get  back 
to  their  poor  country.  Even  from  Manchuria  our 
heroes,  with  the  friendly  help  of  the  northern,  bearded 
barbarians,  called  Ruskies,  expelled  the  dwarfs,  and  so 
the  whole  land  had  peace  once  more." 

"  How  extraordinary  !     What  a  joke  !  " 

"  Yes,  but  to  the  average  villager  it  will  be  as  solid 
truth." 

"  How  can  such  things  be  possible,  and  especially 
in  a  country  which  used  to  be  thought  a  land  of 
sages  ? " 

"This  is  possible,"  said  Dr.  Clinton,  "and  so  also 
are  the  awful  superstitions  possible,  because  the  most 
ordinary  commonplaces  of  science,  which  in  our  coun- 
try are  familiar  to  our  little  boys  and  girls,  are  un- 
known and  unsuspected  even  by  learned  men  in 
China.  These  literati  are  wonderfully  erudite  in 
texts,  letters,  and  books,  powerful  in  style  and  rhet- 
oric, but  hardly  yet  in  the  kindergarten  of  science. 
If  the  learned  are  so  crassly  blind,  what  can  you 
expect  of  the  masses?" 

"Why  in  the  world  are  they  possessed  with  the 
idea  that  we  want  their  children  in  order  to  dig  out 
their  eyes  to  make  chemicals  for  photographs  ? " 


268  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

"Plainly,  they  think  part  of  their  body  or  soul 
goes  into  the  picture  made.  Then,  further,  because 
the  eye  is  like  a  mirror  and  reflects.  On  the  eyeball 
of  your  friend,  as  you  look  in  his  eye,  you  see  your 
own  reflection  or  photograph.  No  wonder  this  part 
of  the  eye  is  called  the  pupil. 

"  The  Chinese  imagine  that  we  possess  the  secret 
of  making  a  plate  sensitive  for  the  camera,  by  extract- 
ing the  virtue  out  of  young  folks'  eyes,  because  these 
are  so  much  more  lustrous  than  those  of  older  per- 
sons. They  are  too  ignorant  of  chemistry  to  know 
about  nitrate  of  silver." 

"Is  there  nothing  in  the  variety  of  color  in  our 
eyes  so  different  from  their  uniform  black  to  support 
them  in  their  theory  ?  " 

"  Decidedly  so.  They  make  of  this  difference  a 
reason  good  in  their  view.  In  the  interior  of  the 
country  they  believe  that  all  foreigners  are  blue- 
eyed,  and  that  only  black  eyes  will  make  the  proper 
drug  for  the  photographers." 

"  Do  the  eyes  of  the  dead  serve  any  other 
purpose  ? " 

"  Yes,  our  *  Dick  Deadeye '  is  as  funny,  in  their 
Chinese  notions,  as  in  '  Pinafore.'  He  can  turn  lead 
into  silver." 

"  Is  there  anything  for  which  our  blue  eyes  have 
to  suffer  in  China's  esteem?"  said  Marian,  looking 
instinctively  at  her  own  in  the  mirror. 


IN   CHINA  AFTER  THE   WAR.  269 

"Oh,  yes,"  said  the  Doctor.  "Pardon  me  and 
don't  feel  offended,  but  since  the  pig's  eyes  are  blue, 
the  usual  sign  of  an  alien  in  Chinese  caricatures  — 
often  too  obscene  to  describe  —  is  a  pig.  Horrible 
to  think  of,  these  pagans  suppose  that  our  Saviour, 
though  we  know  he  was  a  Hebrew  and  a  Syrian, 
had  blue  eyes.  Hence  their  most  common  carica- 
ture of  our  religion  is  a  pig  nailed  to  a  cross." 

"  How  horrible  !  "  and  the  young  girl  shuddered. 

"  But  to  change  this  painful  subject,  consider  how 
our  triumphs  of  applied  science  must  seem  to  the 
illiterate.  They  see  steamers  moving  in  the  water 
against  the  tide  without  wind  or  sail,  and  swifter 
than  eagles.  They  hear  of  railway  trains  rushing 
along  at  the  rate  of  sixty  miles  an  hour,  or  a  mile  a 
minute,  and  their  wonder  increases  when  they  see 
no  power  or  motor.  It  is  not  strange  that  the  same 
Chinaman  who  on  the  Pacific  steamship  burnt  incense 
and  prayed  to  the  walking-beam  of  the  engine,  saw, 
when  in  Chicago,  the  cable  cars  dashing  along  at  a 
frightful  speed,  and  was  even  more  amazed.  He 
cried  out,  '  No  horsee,  no  smokee,  no  lokee,  and  go 
like  lightning  all  the  same.'. 

"  Think  of  people  in  a  village,  hardly  one  in  a  thou- 
sand of  whom  has  ever  been  five  miles  from  his 
rice  field,  hearing  of  these  white  men  able  to  see 
millions  of  miles  in  the  sky,  or  listening  to  tales 
about  looking  into  a  microscope  and  seeing  a  flea 


270  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

as  big  as  an  elephant.  Imagine  their  wonder  when 
in  the  surgical  ward  they  see  legs  and  arms  ampu- 
tated, and  not  only  tumors  removed  from  the  outside 
of  the  body,  but  even  the  interior  opened,  cut,  cleaned, 
or  parts  removed,  and  then  behold  the  patients  out, 
well,  and  strong  again,  in  a  few  days'  or  weeks' 
time.  Since  their  own  geomancers  pretend  to  gaze 
at  the  precious  metals  which  are  down  deep  in  the 
earth,  how  much  more  they  are  likely  to  believe  that 
our  people  can  see  the  gold,  silver,  coal,  and  iron  in 
the  earth." 

"  And  indeed  they  can,"  said  Marian,  "  by  the  eyes 
of  that  faith  which  science  gives.  Then  think  of  the 
X-ray.  I  once  broke  off  a  needle,  and  it  fastened 
itself  among  the  muscles  of  the  base  of  my  thumb. 
The  X-ray  revealed  it  with  perfect  clearness,  though 
it  gave  the  doctors  much  trouble  to  get  it  out." 

"  Yes,  the  miracle  of  yesterday  becomes  the  com- 
monplace fact  of  to-day.  Instructed  in  the  principles 
of  science,  we  not  only  understand  the  phenomenon, 
but  we  expect  every  day  even  greater  wonders. 
Education  for  ages,  and  certainly  since  the  Refor- 
mation, has  been  preparing  us  to  stow  away  in  our 
understanding  what  were  once  miracles,  as  easily  as 
David  put  pebbles  in  his  shepherd  scrip.  But  to  the 
Chinese,  credulous  to  the  last  degree,  ready  to  be- 
lieve anything  and  everything,  we  must  seem  like 
terrible  magicians.  Hence  among  their  ignorant 


IN   CHINA   AFTER  THE   WAR.  271 

masses  the  man  who  by  magic  or  witchcraft  is  able 
to  compete,  as  it  were,  with  the  Westerner,  soon  finds 
a  following." 

"I  can  see,"  said  Marian,  "why  a  Chinaman 
seems  to  us  to  be  made  up  of  a  mass  of  incongruities. 
The  most  opposite  traits  of  character  seem  to  exist 
alongside  of  each  other  in  him.  Probably  that  ac- 
counts for  the  fact  that  while  with  us  two  and  two 
make  four,  with  them  it  seems  to  make  three  or  five." 

"  Yes,  they  call  us  the  '  crab-writing  barbarians,' 
because  we  do  our  writing  and  things  generally  the 
other  way,  or  upside  down  or  backward.  A  mode 
of  arguing  or  reasoning  that  would  lead  us  to  go 
north,  would  start  them  in  a  southern  direction. 
You  know  while  our  compass  points  north,  theirs  is 
the  'south-pointing  chariot.''1 

"  When  do  you  suppose  the  Chinaman  and  West- 
ern man  will  see  eye  to  eye  ? " 

"Certainly  not  while  the  Chinese  holds  to  his 
theory  of  the  universe.  Science  and  education  must 
give  him  a  new  mental  outfit.  Christianity  must 
supply  the  spiritual  impulse,  lift  up  his  moral  life, 
and  purify  his  spiritual  vision.  When  the  mind  of 
our  Chinese  brother  is  so  filled  with  God  that  there 
is  room  for  nothing  else,  then  the  demons  that  over- 
populate  his  air  and  earth  and  sea  will  vanish.  When 
both  look  out  on  the  universe  and  hear  a  voice  saying, 
'  I  am  the  Lord,  and  there  is  none  beside  me,'  then 


272  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

the  white  and  yellow  man  will  understand  each  other, 
and  live  in  peace,  striking  hands  together  to  make 
China  and  the  whole  earth  a  better  place  to  dwell  in." 

"  Do  you  hold  Confucius  responsible  for  the  super- 
stition that  fills  China  and  degrades  the  people  ? " 

"  Yes,  in  part  at  least.  It  would  not  be  fair  to 
charge  to  the  great  sage  the  abominable  sorcery, 
idolatry,  and  the  craven  fear  of  demons  which  de- 
grades the  Chinaman,  nor  to  charge  this  teacher 
with  the  witchcraft  that  everywhere  prevails ;  but  he 
certainly  cut  the  tap-root  of  all  progress  when  he  left 
God  out  of  his  scheme,  and  especially  in  his  famous 
exhortation." 

"  What  is  that  ? "  asked  Marian. 

"  It  is  this,  '  Honor  the  gods  and  keep  them  far 
from  you,'  which  the  Chinese  have  interpreted  to 
mean,  '  Be  polite  to  what  is  supernatural,  but  have 
nothing  to  do  with  it.'  Thus  taught  the  great  agnos- 
tic, Confucius.  And  so  aspiration  was  cut  off  from 
the  poor  Chinaman.  Instead  of  giving  a  system  of 
life  fraught  with  aspiration,  hard  indeed  to  live  up  to, 
but  charged  with  the  seeds  of  everything  good  and 
blessed,  such  as  Jesus  taught,  Confucius  shaped  the 
ancient  traditions  so  as  practically  to  leave  out  their 
soul.  He  framed  a  system  which  is  practical,  easily 
carried  out,  serves  admirably  its  purpose,  but  which 
has  left  the  poor  Chinaman  exactly  where  he  was  a 
millennium  and  a  half  ago,  and  where  he  is  to-day." 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

A  BATTLE  WITH  THE  BOXERS. 

THOSE  end-of-the-century  years  which  Marian 
Hopewell  lived  in  Peking  were  crowded  with 
startling  incidents,  both  in  her  own  life  and  in 
the  great  empire  in  which  she  lived.  As  in  a  storm 
the  pulse  of  the  ocean  "  beats  with  low  rhythm  "  not 
only  on  the  beach,  but  also  in  the  inland  air,  and  as 
the  salt  spray  can  be  almost  tasted  and  its  ozone 
discerned  some  distance  inward  from  the  shore  line, 
so  the  movements  of  the  outside  world  were  felt,  at 
least,  a  little  way  inside  mighty  China. 

The  Japanese  war  had  exposed  to  the  world,  as 
nothing  else  could  have  done,  the  military  weakness 
of  China,  and  this  meant  the  sliding  forward  of  the 
Russian  glacier,  the  entrance  of  Germany  as  a  land 
seizer  and  owner,  the  occupation  of  one  of  the  "  gates 
of  Peking"  by  a  British  garrison,  and  the  attempt  of 
Italy  to  gain  the  control  of  a  marine  province.  Yet 
all  this  was  on  the  outside. 

Inside  the  country  the  literati,  the  great  opposers 
of  progress,  remained,  in  their  attitude  to  whatever 

273 


274  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

was  outside  of  China,  the  same  owls  and  bats  that 
they  had  always  been.  Terrified  one  moment  by 
impotent  fear,  they  were  the  next  moment  boiling 
with  rage  because  they  could  not  stop  the  ocean 
wave  of  Westernization.  To  them  the  entrance  of 
science,  Christianity,  machinery,  or  anything  foreign, 
meant  loss  of  power,  place,  and  income.  That 
"knowledge  is  power"  was  a  wise  saw  which  they 
translated  to  mean  prey  and  booty.  "Though  an 
eagle  be  starving,  it  will  not  eat  grain."  They  had 
fattened  too  long  on  the  carcase  willingly  to  yield 
their  quarry  —  the  common  people. 

"  How  do  the  literati,  with  their  peculiar  ideas  of 
education,  look  on  us  ? "  asked  Marian  Hopewell  one 
day  of  Dr.  Clinton. 

"Well,  you  know  they  call  us  'devils,'  and  we  are 
very  strange  objects  in  their  eyes.  Do  you  remem- 
ber the  gargoyles  and  the  grotesque  creatures  that 
are  sculptured  on  Gothic  cathedrals,  representing 
the  demons,  exorcised  by  the  prayers  of  the  holy  ? 
Such  are  we  in  their  eyes." 

"  Does  this  view  of  us  and  our  ways  account  for 
the  riots  which  were  so  numerous  seven  or  eight 
years  ago  ? " 

"  Fully  so,  I  think.  Let  but  some  high  mandarin 
issue  a  lying  book  against  us  inflaming  the  public 
mind,  and  let  the  roughs  start  a  riot,  and  the  fire  of 
destruction  is  begun.  You  will  find  that  the  local 


A   BATTLE   WITH   THE   BOXERS.  275 

magistrates  keep  away  till  the  affair  is  over.  Then 
they  send  soldiers,  who,  as  likely  as  not,  join  in  the 
melee  and  plunder." 

"  Are  these  secret  societies,  '  Triads,'  '  Sect  of 
Heaven  and  Earth,'  '  White  Lotus  Flower,'  '  Elder 
Brother,'  '  Long  Sword,'  and  what  not,  that  I  hear 
of,  organized  especially  against  foreigners  ?  " 

"  Oh,  not  necessarily.  Some  of  these  fraternities 
are  very  little  different  from  those  we  have  at  home. 
There  are  people  all  over  the  world,  you  know,  who 
are  fond  of  mystic  ceremonies ;  and  there  are  others 
who  like  to  manufacture  and  keep  secrets  and  guard 
them  with  mysterious  performances  more  or  less 
solemn  or  ridiculous ;  but  in  China,  apart  from  these 
innocent  orders,  there  are  some  that  are  hostile  to  the 
Peking  dynasty,  which  is  Manchu.  A  few  years 
ago  we  had  the  tail-cutting  mania." 

"  The  what  ?  "  asked  Marian. 

"  Scissors  and  knives  might  have  been  their  em- 
blems and  Delilah  their  patron,  for  Jthe  strength  of 
the  Manchu  is  in  his  hair,  and  the  Chinaman's  queue 
is  the  symbol  of  loyalty  to  the  powers  in  Peking. 
To  cut  off  the  queue  is  an  insult  to  the  Emperor. 
So  the  anti-dynasty  men  went  around  with  sharp 
scissors  and  snipped  off  the  queues  of  gentlemen, 
rich  merchants,  and  occasionally  even  high  manda- 
rins. Thousands  of  the  common  people  lost  their 
queues  and  were  disgraced." 


276  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

At  this  Marian  laughed  hilariously,  for  the  picture 
in  her  mind  was  as  mirth-provoking  as  any  cartoon 
in  Judge,  Puck,  or  Life.  In  China,  a  man  without 
his  queue  would  be  much  like  a  gentleman  on  Broad- 
way without  collar  or  necktie,  or  with  only  one  leg 
on  his  trousers.  To  think  of  a  pompous  mandarin 
falling  asleep  and  waking  up  queueless,  put  Marian 
in  mind  of  a  chicken  running  around  with  its  head 
off. 

A  few  days  after  this  conversation  the  Mission 
Home  was  in  a  joyful  state  of  excitement,  tempered 
with  trepidation.  It  had  been  announced  that  the 
great  reformer  and  scholar,  Dr.  Kang,  summoned 
from  Canton  by  the  Emperor,  was,  in  company  with 
the  United  States  envoy,  to  inspect  the  various 
schools,  hospitals,  and  other  benevolent  institutions 
conducted  by  Americans  in  Peking,  and  that  he 
would  visit  the  Mission  Home. 

This  was  the  time  of  bright  promise  to  all  who 
hoped  for  a  new  and  better  China,  because  the 
young  Emperor  was  leading  a  movement  which 
meant  a  reconstruction  of  Chinese  education,  if  not 
of  the  whole  social  order.  Indeed,  so  many  were 
the  new  changes  and  enterprises,  that  one  wise 
man  called  the  imperial  scheme  a  "  pagoda  of  many 
stages." 

Although  so  many  of  the  literati  or  "educated" 
Chinamen,  that  is,  ponderously  learned  men,  who 


A  BATTLE  WITH  THE  BOXERS.     277 

could  not  add  up  a  column  of  figures,  or  pass  an 
examination  in  science  that  would  satisfy  a  primary 
school-teacher  in  America,  were  still  playing  the  role 
of  the  owl  and  the  bat,  yet  there  were  a  few  earnest 
Chinese  scattered  over  the  country  who  had  opened 
their  own  eyes,  and  were  trying  to  get  others  opened. 
They  realized  what  had  happened  to  China  at  the 
hands  of  Japan,  and  what  the  foreigners'  science  and 
religion,  as  well  as  their  predatory  instincts,  were. 

At  Shanghai  a  noble  band  of  merchants  and  mis- 
sionaries, working  in  harmony,  had  scattered  all  over 
the  empire  honestly  written  histories  of  the  war, 
besides  pamphlets  and  books  which  taught  the  com- 
monplaces of  science,  giving  facts  and  news  of  the 
world  beyond  China.  These  publications  had  been 
eagerly  read,  and  something  like  a  party  which  might 
be  called  "  Young  China  "  was  beginning  to  form. 

In  the  capital,  reform  clubs  were  organized. 
Some  of  the  brightest  men  in  the  academy  of 
scholars,  called  Hanlin  or  Forest  of  Pencils,  openly 
advocated  following  the  methods  of  Japan.  Best  of 
all,  the  young  Emperor,  hearing  of  these  books,  had 
begun  to  read  them,  to  inquire  of  men  of  the  new 
order  of  mind,  and  to  plan  for  freedom.  Had  he 
been  a  stronger  character,  he  might  have  been  the 
Luther  of  China.  He  called  the  reformers  to  him, 
took  their  advice,  and  ordered  more  books  for  his 
own  reading. 


278  IN   THE  MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

Soon  the  Chinese  world  was  startled  by  edicts  that 
meant  change  and  reform.  Old  conservatives  held 
their  breath  and  wondered  if  the  Son  of  Heaven  was 
mad,  while  the  friends  of  progress  rejoiced,  some, 
indeed,  with  trembling. 

Alas,  the  man's  "  ride  on  the  dragon  "  that  soars 
and  blesses  was  succeeded  by  a  woman's  "  ride  on 
the  tiger."  If  the  Emperor  and  the  reformers  wanted 
things  new,  the  Empress  Dowager  and  her  adherents 
resolved  to  have  things  old. 

We  all  know  the  story  of  how  the  lights  of  hope, 
which  the  reformers  kindled,  were  quickly  quenched 
in  their  own  blood.  Six  were  beheaded.  The  others 
fled  for  their  lives.  A  great  storm  of  reaction  broke, 
which  blasted  the  budding  hopes  of  enlightened 
patriots  and  left  ruin  in  its  path.  Like  a  fair  gar- 
den, in  which  spring  flowers  had  begun  to  appear, 
there  remained  after  the  wrath  of  the  Empress  only 
the  blackness  and  death  of  untimely  frost. 

The  entire  scheme  of  reform  vanished,  only  one 
flower  in  the  garden  being  spared.  This  was  the 
plan  of  a  new  imperial  university,  urged  by  Li 
Hung  Chang,  and  for  which  the  silver  had  already 
been  set  aside.  It  was  now  started  under  the  aus- 
pices of  an  honored  American,  who  had  given  a  life- 
time of  service  to  China. 

So  came  and  went  the  months  that  melted  into 
years,  until  the  penultimate  year  of  the  century  had 


A   BATTLE   WITH   THE   BOXERS.  279 

come.  In  that  province  of  Confucius,  Shantung,  dis- 
orders and  commotions  were  frequent.  One  looking 
at  a  map  of  China  may  think  of  a  round-bodied  tea- 
pot, of  which  this  is  the  spout.  Out  of  it  now  issued 
proofs  of  the  tempest  within,  this  time  not  of  petty 
proportions,  but  one  that  was  to  rouse  the  world. 
Shantung  produced  Confucius,  agnosticism,  and  the 
Boxers  of  1900. 

Marian  Hopewell  heard  rumors  and  detailed  ac- 
counts of  these  outbreaks  and  outrages,  —  the  burn- 
ing of  churches,  the  insults  and  injuries  to  foreigners. 
She  often  talked  about  them  to  her  friend,  Mrs. 
Drayton,  wondering  whether  anything  like  these  dis- 
turbances could  or  would  ever  occur  in  Peking.  She 
asked  one  day  a  scholarly  gentleman,  who  had  been 
in  China  fifty  years,  and  he  promptly  answered :  — 

"  Never,  I  could  not  imagine  such  a  thing." 

A  few  days  afterward  the  ladies  at  the  Mission 
Home  were  talking  over  the  approaching  shadows  of 
great  events. 

"  Who  are  these  men  that  make  these  disturb- 
ances?" asked  Marian. 

"  They  are  called  by  the  foreigners  '  Boxers.'  " 

"  Are  they  athletes  ?  I  never  heard  of  Chinese 
men  boxing." 

"  No,  nor  I.  Athletic  exercises,  outside  of  the  sol- 
diery, are  practically  unknown.  These  fellows  are 
associated  together  under  the  name  '  I  Ho  Chuen.'  " 


280  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

"Why,  that  sounds  like  a  sneeze,  doesn't  it?"  said 
Marian. 

"  It  does,  and  their  motions  are  about  as  violent 
and  unexpected  as  if  caused  by  catarrh  snuff.  The 
first  character  in  the  trio  means  '  volunteer,'  the 
second,  '  combined  '  or  '  associated,'  and  the  third,  the 
'fist.'  Can  you  think  of  a  fraternity  meaning  Vol- 
unteer Associated  Fists,  or,  to  give  the  name  the 
significance  which  it  has  in  their  minds,  the  Holy 
and  Harmonious  Smiters?  But  why  do  you  laugh  at 
the  name  ?  " 

"  I  did  not,"  said  Marian.  "  I  was  thinking  of  my 
notions,  when  I  first  heard  the  name  Boxer,  and  of 
my  association  of  ideas  —  the  same  I  imagine  that  our 
friends  at  home  will  have.  I  remember  once  being 
on  a  college  campus,  when  a  company  of  young 
athletes,  with  tense  muscles  and  scanty  garments,  were 
out  cultivating  their  physical  life  by  running  on  a  paper 
hunt.  You  know  that  it  is  not  exactly  '  spicy  breezes ' 
that  blow  out  of  gymnasiums,  or  softly  over  the  hills 
where  human  beings  are  exercising  their  muscles. 
As  I  was  walking  along  with  the  professor  of  Eng- 
lish literature  —  a  gentleman  who  narrowly  escaped 
being  a  genius  —  he  mildly  tweaked  his  own  nose,  as 
the  young  men  passed  by,  leaving  evidences  in  the 
air  of  their  presence,  briefly  remarking,  'Well,  I  am 
glad  I'm  not  strong?  So,  in  our  American  news- 
papers, I  can  imagine  our  friends  at  home  thinking 


A   BATTLE   WITH   THE   BOXERS.  281 

of  Chinese  pugilists  doubling  up  their  fists  for  an 
encounter  in  the  ring,  or  indulging  in  the  manly  art 
of  self-defence.  But  what  do  you  suppose  is  the 
real  object  of  these  Boxers  ?  " 

"  I  am  convinced  that  hatred  of  the  foreigner  and 
all  his  ways  and  works  is  at  the  bottom  of  their 
actions,"  said  Mrs.  Drayton.  "  They  are  exactly  like 
the  oldyW,  or  foreigner-haters,  who  tried  to  terrorize 
Americans  in  the  early  days  of  our  residence  in 
Japan.  These  island  braves  used  to  cut  down  aliens 
from  behind,  burn  the  foreign  legations,  and  keep  up 
a  series  of  assassinations  and  incendiarisms,  with  the 
idea  of  driving  the  'barbarians'  out  of  the  country. 
They  thought  theirs  the  holy  land,  and  the  alien  as 
defiling  it.  Over  and  over  again  they  tried  to  get 
the  Mikado  to  lead  them  in  sweeping  the  hairy-faced 
foreigners  into  the  sea." 

"  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  the  progressive  Japan- 
ese, and  their  liberal  and  enlightened  Emperor,  ever 
had  such  ideas  ?  " 

"  That  is  exactly  what  I  mean.  For  years  it  was 
the  hope  and  aim  of  a  majority  of  the  Japanese  po- 
litical leaders,  and  of  men  educated  in  the  old  style, 
to  shut  out  all  the  world  and  go  back  to  their  isola- 
tion. This  is  exactly  what  the  Chinese  want  to-day. 
It  is  their  dream  and  hope.  The  same  silly  conceit, 
the  same  ignorance  that  passed  for  learning,  the  same 
idiocy  of  pride  in  thinking  that  Japan  was  the  one 


282  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

country  favored  of  Heaven,  and  that  the  Western 
men  were  as  beasts  and  vermin,  once  possessed  the 
Japanese." 

"  How  different  they  are  now !  " 

"  Yes,  they  call  themselves  '  frogs  in  the  well '  and 
laugh  at  their  old  manners  and  customs,  conceit  and 
folly.  They  see  the  Chinese  as  they  themselves  were, 
and  this  was  one  spring  of  their  zeal  and  valor  in 
the  late  war.  In  fact,  none  outside  of  China  can 
know  and  understand  the  Chinese  as  the  Japanese 
can." 

"  Were  there  any  riots  in  Japan  during  the  early 
years  of  intercourse  with  foreigners  ?  " 

"  No,  and  there  is  the  difference.  There  were 
individual  outrages,  and  there  were  combinations  to 
effect  political  purposes,  including  the  expulsion  of 
foreigners,  but  these  were  entirely  by  the  samurai  or 
gentlemen.  There  were  no  mobs,  never  any  popular 
outbreaks,  for  most  of  the  common  people,  I  think, 
had  no  objection  to  foreigners.  Furthermore,  a  Jap- 
anese can  think  by  himself,  individually;  but  the 
Chinese  can  think  and  act  only  in  a  mass.  The  aver- 
age Chinaman  will  be  a  quiet  and  inoffensive  person 
one  moment,  a  raging  demon  and  a  destroying  terror 
the  next,  and  then  again,  after  a  few  minutes,  he 
laughs  and  is  the  same  quiet  man  as  before." 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1899  Marian  Hopewell  and 
her  friend,  Mrs.  Drayton,  went  down  to  the  city  of 


A   BATTLE    WITH  THE   BOXERS.  283 

Pao-ting,  only  a  few  miles  east  of  the  capital,  to 
spend  a  few  days  with  friends  in  that  city.  While 
there  they  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Wheeler, 
an  English  missionary.  This  gentleman  wore  Chi- 
nese clothes,  in  order  to  attract  less  the  attention  of 
the  crowd  while  travelling,  and  because  also  he 
thought  that  such  a  costume  would  disarm  prejudice, 
open  the  way  to  the  reception  of  his  ideas  and  teach- 
ings, withal  finding  such  clothing  very  serviceable 
and  comfortable. 

To  go  and  see  one  of  the  villages,  not  many  miles 
distant,  the  party  took  the  ordinary  vehicle  of  the 
country,  a  two-wheeled  springless  cart  covered  with 
canvas  stretched  on  a  frame.  They  suffered  rather 
than  enjoyed  the  ride,  but  the  soft  spring  air  and 
tender  green  of  the  springtime  charmed  them. 

Without  expectation,- they  came  into  a  hornets' 
nest  of  the  Boxers. 

"  Here  is  a  '  Boxer  placard.'  Let  us  read  it." 
Driving  their  cart  close  to  the  fence  near  a  Taoist 
temple,  Mr.  Wheeler  cried  out :  "  They  have  actually 
called  in  the  muses  to  assist  them.  Here  is  a  poem, 
written  in  lines,  as  you  see,  of  three  and  of  seven  char- 
acters. The  rhyme  is  quite  perfect,  and  such  a  song 
could  be  easily  learned  by  the  people. 

"  God  assists  the  Boxers, 
The  Patriotic,  Harmonious  Corps ; 
It  is  because  the  Foreign  Devils  disturb  the  Middle  Kingdom, 


284  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

Urging  the  people  to  join  their  religion, 

To  turn  their  backs  on  Heaven ; 

Venerate  not  the  Gods  and  forget  the  Ancestors. 

Men  violate  the  human  obligations  ; 

Women  commit  adultery. 

Foreign  Devils  are  not  produced  by  mankind. 

If  you  doubt  this,  look  at  them  carefully : 

The  eyes  of  the  Foreign  Devils  are  bluish. 

No  rain  falls. 

The  earth  is  getting  dry. 

This  is  because  the  Churches  stop  the  Heaven. 

The  Gods  are  angry. 

The  Genii  are  vexed ; 

Both  are  come  down  from  the  mountains  to  deliver  the  doctrine. 

This  is  not  hearsay. 

The  practice  will  not  be  in  vain. 

To  recite  incantations  and  pronounce  magic  words. 

Burn  up  the  yellow  written  prayers ; 

Light  incense  sticks ; 

To  invite  the  Gods  and  Genii  of  all  the  grottoes  (Halls) . 

The  Gods  will  come  out  of  the  grottoes, 

And  Genii  will  come  down  from  the  mountains, 

And  support  the  human  bodies  to  practise  the  boxing. 

When  all  the  military  accomplishments  of  the  tactics  are 

fully  learned, 

It  will  not  be  difficult  to  exterminate  the  Foreign  Devils  then. 
Push  aside  the  railway  tracks, 
Pull  out  the  telegraph  poles, 
Immediately  after  this  destroy  the  steamers. 
The  great  France 
Will  grow  cold  and  downhearted ; 
The  English  and  Russians  will  certainly  disperse. 
Let  the  various  Foreign  Devils  all  be  killed 
May  the  whole  elegant  Empire  of  the  Great  Ching  dynasty  be 

ever  prosperous." 


A   BATTLE   WITH   THE   BOXERS.  285 

The  boys  of  the  town  had  been  assembled  in  com- 
panies and  were  being  drilled  by  a  man  who  kept  a 
writing  school.  He  was  one  of  that  very  numerous 
class  in  China  —  the  literati  without  office.  He  had 
been  more  than  once  rejected  at  the  civil  service 
examinations,  and  so,  following  the  usual  alternative 
of  his  fellows  who  were  similarly  situated,  he  had 
settled  down  to  make  a  livelihood  as  a  private  school- 
master. 

He  was  known  to  be  a  bitter  hater  of  everything 
foreign,  whether  animate  or  inanimate.  The  drill,  if 
such  we  may  call  it,  consisted  in  making  the  boys  go 
through  peculiar  motions  that  we  might  call  calis- 
thenics ;  but  the  purpose  seemed  to  be  to  get  the  boys 
able  to  stand  a  certain  amount  of  tenseness,  even 
rigidity,  of  muscle,  and  to  be  able  to  continue  a  cer- 
tain gesture  or  motion  for  many  minutes  at  a  time. 

"There,"  said  Mr.  Wheeler,  "see  that  man.  I 
know  him  well.  He  is  making  Boxers  out  of  these 
boys.  He  is  training  them,  not  only  in  muscle  and 
limb,  but  by  and  by  he  will  get  them  so  that  he  can 
hypnotize  them,  that  is,  make  them  fall  into  a  trance 
at  his  will." 

"  What  is  the  object  of  that  ?  "  asked  Marian. 

"Well,  first  to  show  his  power  over  them  and  then 
also  because  those  who  are  thus,  treated  become 
clothed  with  a  bullet-proof  atmosphere,  so  that  they 
can  then  stand  up  against  foreign  musketry  and 


286  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

receive  shot,  shell,  or  bullet  without  injury.  Then 
there  is  a  sort  of  spiritual  or  rather  spiritistic  side  to 
the  delusion." 

"Ah,  what  is  that?" 

"  Nothing  more  nor  less  than  witchcraft,  except 
that  the  Chinese  variety  is  a  little  different  from  that 
fashionable  in  our  own  Middle  Ages,  when  we 
European  Christians  used  to  burn,  drown,  or  behead 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  poor  people 
accused  of  being  witches.  It  is  good  to  look  in  the 
looking-glass  of  history  once  in  a  while,"  and  the 
Englishman  smiled  a  smile  that  seemed  to  go  up  to 
the  edge  of  his  rimless  cap. 

"  What  is  the  Chinese  variety  of  witchcraft  ?  " 

"  Instead  of  attenuating  themselves  and  drawing 
their  bodies  through  keyholes,  or  crawling  in  through 
the  crevices  of  doors  and  windows,  the  Chinese  spirits 
come  down  from  the  sky.  The  Boxer  theory  is 
almost  equal  to  that  of  the  old  Mormon  notion,  in 
which  there  are  millions  of  souls  already  yearning, 
through  polygamy,  to  be  incarnated.  The  Chinese 
believe  that  up  in  the  sky  there  are  many  tens  of 
thousands  of  warriors  waiting  to  be  incarnated  in 
patriotic  Chinese.  It  is  only  by  a  course  of  exer- 
cises such  as  the  Boxers  practise  that  the  celestial 
spirit  warrior  can  get  into  the  terrestrial  Boxer, 
that  is,  during  a  trance.  This  is  the  object  of  all 
this  drilling  and  hypnotism." 


A   BATTLE   WITH   THE   BOXERS.  287 

"Have  you  ever  witnessed  any  of  their  incanta- 
tions ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  have  actually  seen  one  of  these  '  mediums,' 
as  we  should  call  him,  order  out  of  the  ranks  a  man, 
evidently  a  good  '  subject/  as  we  should  say.  Then, 
after  gestures  made  toward  the  sky,  the  leader  waved 
his  sword  over  the  man's  head  and  down  along  his 
legs  and  body.  Then  he  would  go  over  his  face, 
just  as  I  have  seen  mesmerists  do.  After  that,  the 
man's  limbs  stiffened,  his  eyes  were  fixed  in  a  stare, 
and  he  tumbled  on  the  ground,  and  would  lie  there 
until  the  leader,  by  more  passes  and  strokes  and 
waving  of  the  hands,  would  wake  him  up.  From 
that  time  the  subject  was  supposed  to  be  bullet- 
proof." 

"How  very  much  like  the  witchcraft  and  exorcism 
in  vogue  among  certain  Buddhist  sects  in  Japan," 
said  Mrs.  Drayton,  who  had  both  heard  and  seen 
similar  phenomena  in  the  Mikado's  empire.  "  Only, 
often,  instead  of  a  celestial  warrior  which  has  en- 
tered the  person,  —  usually  a  woman,  however,  —  it 
is  supposed  to  be  a  fox,  but  the  priest  generally 
succeeds  in  getting  the  creature  out  again." 

"  How  much  the  same  the  primitive  paganism  that 
lurks  in  us  is  all  over  the  world,"  said  Mr.  Wheeler, 
musingly,  "whether  it  be  a  fox,  or  a  spiritual  war- 
rior, or  the  mediaeval  devil,  or  a  supposed  old  woman 
with  pins  or  on  a  broomstick,  the  witchcraft  of  every 


288  IN  THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

age  and  country  is,  in  my  estimation,  about  the  same 
—  the  outgrowth  of  rank  superstition." 

"  Do  you  find  the  notion  of  witchcraft  in  one  form 
or  another  very  prevalent  in  your  special  field  of 
labor  ?  "  asked  Mrs.  Dray  ton. 

"  I  do,"  he  answered ;  "  I  believe  it  is  the  greatest 
of  all  obstacles  to  the  spread  of  the  Gospel  every- 
where. In  all  the  earth,  perhaps,  there  is  nothing 
so  opposes  the  spread  of  the  truth  which  Christ 
taught.  I  am  sure  we  are  only  safe  when  — " 

Here  the  fluent  talk  of  the  earnest  Englishman 
was  interrupted  by  something  that  went  crashing 
through  the  timber  frame  holding  the  canvas,  send- 
ing the  splinters  all  over  the  occupants  of  the  cart. 
One  of  them,  several  inches  long,  tore  the  cheek  of 
the  Chinese  driver  and  stuck  itself,  as  if  it  were  a 
javelin,  into  the  flank  of  the  horse. 

The  animal,  infuriated  with  pain,  leaped  forward, 
knocking  the  Chinese  driver  out  upon  the  street. 
The  Englishman  strove  to  stop  the  animal  and  even 
leaped  out  on  the  shaft  to  catch  the  horse  by  the 
mane  or  ear,  but  losing  his  balance,  he  also  tumbled 
off.  With  a  lightened  load,  the  horse  made  faster 
time  and  dashed  ahead,  never  stopping  until  the  cart 
was  stopped  in  a  crowd  of  Chinese  quite  close  to  the 
gate  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Mission. 

During  these  exciting  moments  the  two  ladies  were 
so  terrified  by  their  danger  that  they  had  not  heard 


A   BATTLE   WITH   THE   BOXERS.  289 

the  sound  of  firearms  which  had  been  going  on  stead- 
ily around  the  Catholic  Mission  quarters,  until  it 
became  a  lively  fusillade,  making  a  battlefield. 

On  that  day  the  red-belted  Boxers  had  come  to 
town  in  little  squads,  here  and  there,  and  by  differ- 
ent roads,  so  as  not  to  excite  attention.  Assembling, 
according  to  a  previous  programme,  in  front  of  the 
big  Buddhist  temple,  they  then  started  out,  evidently 
in  collusion  with  the  local  mandarin,  to  seize  and  kill 
all  the  native  Christians,  who  in  that  village  were  all 
Roman  Catholics. 

They  expected  the  same  easy  work  which  they  had 
found  in  other  places.  They  hoped,  in  every  case 
where  victims  were  not  shot  in  resistance,  to  make 
a  Christian  kneel,  and  while  one  Boxer  held  up  his 
queue,  to  have  another,  a  swordsman,  take  off  his 
head  with  their  clumsy-chopping  weapon,  which  in 
shape  reminds  one  of  a  cleaver  or  a  plough-share. 
In  case  of  the  women,  it  was  first  robbery  of  their 
clothing  and  then  a  spear  thrust. 

But  this  time  the  biters  were  bit.  They  found 
something  that  could  show  teeth.  Warned  by  wary 
watchers,  the  Christians  had  fled  with  their  wives  and 
children  into  the  "  compound  "  of  the  French  priests, 
though  not  all  had  arrived  in  time.  Before  the  gates 
could  be  shut,  there  were  still  many  of  the  Christians 
running  up  the  street  toward  the  gateway  on  the 
farther  or  western  side,  when  the  Boxers  marched 


290  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

down  from  the  temple,  having  gathered  their  forces 
in  full. 

Knowing  what  was  likely  to  come  on  any  day,  the 
French  priests  had,  weeks  before,  gathered  a  store 
of  old  chassepot  rifles,  and,  with  plenty  of  cartridges 
on  hand,  had  drilled  all  their  male  converts  above  fif- 
teen years  old  to  handle  their  guns  expertly.  More- 
over, there  were  about  ten  repeating  rifles  in  the 
hands  of  the  Frenchmen  and  the  best-trained  con- 
verts, and  when  the  Boxers  charged  on  a  run, 
yelling,  "  Kill  the  Christians !  "  at  the  top  of  their 
voices,  the  French  fathers  mounted  the  corner  of 
the  wall  on  the  eastern  side  and  laid  five  or  six  of  the 
Boxers  low,  before  these  could  get  near  enough  to 
use  their  long  spears. 

The  open  gateway  was  on  the  farther  or  western 
side,  and  while  the  women  and  children  were  still  run- 
ning in  or  toward  it,  about  twenty  Chinese  Chris- 
tians with  their  chassepots,  led  by  two  of  the 
fathers  with  repeaters,  took  their  places  in  a  line, 
with  their  backs  to  the  streets  up  which  the  fugi- 
tives were  coming.  Soon  the  deluded  fanatics  who 
believed  that  because  they  had  on  the  red-trimmed 
coats  of  the  "  Harmonious  Fisters,"  who  had  taken 
their  "degree,"  they  were  invulnerable  to  the  for- 
eigners' balls,  charged  boldly  on  the  line  of  fire  with 
their  long  spears,  terribly  broad-bladed,  sharp  on 
one  side  and  hooked  on  the  other.  Within  three 


')  I 


"THE  BOXERS  CHARGED  ON  A  RUN. 


gpELIBfS!^, 

&     OF  THE     °> 

UNIVERSITY 


. 


: '• 


<js.. 


A   BATTLE   WITH   THE    BOXERS.  291 

minutes  the  place  looked  like  what  it  was,  a  battle- 
field. At  least  thirty  Boxers  were  lying  on  the 
ground,  some  of  them  writhing  with  their  wounds, 
others  face  downward  and  dead,  since  they  had 
fallen  when  running. 

The  repeating  rifles  at  the  angle  of  the  compound 
had  wrought  the  most  mischief.  Yet  not  even  the 
terrible  charge  of  the  Boxers,  who  kept  in  the  front 
of  the  fight,  some  of  them  climbing  over  the  dead 
bodies  of  their  comrades,  could  break  that  line  of 
Christians  fighting  for  their  wives  and  children. 
Nevertheless,  one  of  the  converts  had  his  rifle  knocked 
aside  and  received  a  sweeping  blow  from  the  sword 
in  the  right  hand  of  a  Boxer,  that  cut  deeply  into 
his  neck.  This  was  the  only  one  of  the  Christians 
that  received  a  mortal  wound. 

The  panther-like  fanatic  hoped  to  break  through 
the  line  and  cut  from  behind,  but  was  instantly  shot 
dead.  Two  other  converts  were  frightfully  wounded 
by  thrusts  of  the  clumsy  but  terrible  halberds  of  the 
Boxers.  Unable  to  make  any  impression  on  that 
gallant  little  line,  and  getting  so  terrible  and  unex- 
pected a  taste  of  lead,  the  Boxers  broke  and  disap- 
peared. 

It  was  one  of  the  first  shots  of  the  repeating  rifles 
that  had  crashed  through  the  framework  of  the  cart 
in  which  the  visitors  were  driving.  It  was  within  a 
few  seconds  after  the  Boxers  had  retreated,  that  their 


292  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

maddened  horse  came  within  sight  of  the  line  of 
Christian  defenders  and  among  the  people  running 
toward  the  shelter  of  the  mission.  Seeing  the  white 
ladies  in  the  cart,  one  of  the  converts,  rifle  in  hand, 
stood  before  the  frightened  animal,  holding  his  weapon 
crosswise,  not  shouting,  but  uttering  a  sound  of  en- 
couragement which  calmed  the  beast,  so  that  he  was 
easily  stopped  and  led  into  the  compound.  The 
shattered  timber  of  the  frame,  the  splinter  still  stick- 
ing in  the  side  of  the  animal,  which  was  profusely 
bleeding,  and  the  well-spattered  shaft  told  the  whole 
story. 

A  moment  more  and  Mr.  Wheeler,  who  from  the 
firing  had  divined  what  was  the  matter  and  had  fol- 
lowed up,  keeping  sight  of  the  fast-moving  cart, 
arrived  to  open  his  eyes  very  wide  at  what  was  before 
him. 

Indeed,  even  the  French  fathers  and  the  militant 
Christians  paused  for  a  moment,  less  attentive  to  the 
possibilities  of  another  Boxer  attack,  or  the  needs  of 
the  moment,  than  to  watch  the  behavior  of  three 
Buddhist  priests  who  had  issued  from  the  temple, 
which,  by  the  way,  bears  to-day  the  mark  of  those 
chassepot  bullets  that  went  wild.  With  the  Boxers' 
badges  upon  them,  the  bonzes  went  around  among 
the  corpses,  apparently  to  bring  them  to  life.  Each 
dead  man  was  turned  over,  and  the  priest  put  his  hand 
over  the  hole  whence  had  oozed  the  red  life  stream. 


A   BATTLE   WITH   THE   BOXERS.  293 

With  motions  up  and  down,  he  pretended  to  extract 
the  balls,  or,  when  the  body  had  been  wholly  per- 
forated, which  the  priest  could  see  by  turning  the 
corpse  over,  strokings  were  made  over  the  body  in 
the  form,  to  foreigners,  of  a  cross,  but  in  reality  to 
accord  with  the  four  points  of  the  compass. 

"That's  just  what  I  have  heard  of  these  priests," 
said  Mr.  Wheeler,  who,  after  seeing  that  his  lady 
friends  were  safe,  had  come  up  and  saluted  the  French 
father,  even  while  he  was  holding  the  repeating  rifle. 
The  Englishman  explained  how  and  why  one  of  their 
first  shots,  that  must  have  gone  over  the  low  house 
roofs,  had  accelerated  the  horse's  pace  and  brought 
them  all  unexpectedly  there. 

"  Those  Buddhist  priests  will  circulate  the  story 
that  these  Boxers  lying  dead  here  will  be  alive  in 
three  days,  because  of  the  incantations  they  are  mak- 
ing." 

"Yes,"  said  the  father,  "but  no  one  will  ever  look 
upon  these  men  again.  But  now  let  us  give  atten- 
tion to  the  wounded.  Pray,  sir,  will  you  and  your 
party  stay  wth  us  and  refresh  yourselves  ?  Of  course, 
we  do  not  know  what  the  rest  of  the  day  will  bring 
forth,  or  whether  the  Boxers  will  return ;  but  we  shall 
inform  the  magistrates,  and  they  will  doubtless  fur- 
nish you  an  escort  of  soldiers  to  return  to-morrow  if 
you  must.  Meanwhile,  what  we  have  is  at  your 
service." 


294  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

Long  disciplined  to  self-control  by  frequent  sights 
of  disease  and  misery  in  Peking,  Mrs.  Drayton  and 
Marian  Hopewell  took  part  in  helping  to  make  the 
wounded,  both  Christian  and  pagan,  comfortable. 

There  were  thirteen  of  the  Boxers  bleeding,  but 
living,  and  in  one  of  the  storehouses  of  the  com- 
pound a  rough  hospital  was  extemporized.  The 
physician  and  surgeon  of  the  Mission  was  kept  busy 
for  several  hours  in  dressing  the  wounds  and  mend- 
ing the  bones  of  the  misguided  fanatics.  The  two 
ladies  assisted  to  make  them  comfortable,  and  then 
prepared  to  spend  the  night  in  the  Mission  quarters. 

The  local  Chinese  magistrate  did  indeed  appear 
with  some  soldiers  on  the  scene,  —  about  an  hour 
after  the  last  shot  had  been  fired,  —  and  after  a  par- 
ley with  the  principal  of  the  French  fathers,  the 
bodies  of  the  dead  were  removed  to  be  disposed  of 
under  the  direction  of  the  Buddhist  priests.  The 
manner  of  carrying  away  the  corpses  was  to  call  up 
a  gang  of  laborers,  each  pair  of  whom  had  a  stout 
bamboo  pole.  Laying  three  ropes  on  the  ground, 
they  placed  a  dead  Boxer  face  downward,  and  the 
pole  lengthwise  on  his  back.  Then  the  ropes  were 
tied  and  the  pole  shouldered  by  the  two  men.  The 
bodies  were  carried  off  to  the  cemetery  in  which  the 
paupers  and,  in  time  of  famine  or  pestilence,  all 
the  dead  were  buried  in  mass. 

The  next  morning  the  driver  of  their  cart  put  in 


A   BATTLE   WITH  THE   BOXERS.  295 

an  appearance,  with  no  greater  damage  than  a  bruised 
shoulder,  recovered  his  property,  took  in  his  fare, 
and  the  party  again  returned  to  Pao-Ting.  Thence 
they  made  their  way  back  to.  their  home  in  Peking, 
giving  their  shocked  nerves  rest  and  recovery. 

This  affair  in  a  village  near  Pao-Ting  was  as  "a 
leaf  in  a  storm  "  that  was  to  burst  in  Peking.  Never- 
theless, both  the  women  still  rested  in  the  belief  of 
the  veteran  American  educator,  who  had  been  in 
China  during  well-nigh  a  cycle  of  Chinese  years,  and 
who  declared  on  the  very  day  of  their  return  — 

"  I  fear  nothing.  Peking  is  the  safest  place  in  the 
world." 

Nevertheless,  the  foreign  ministers,  before  it  was 
too  late,  took  the  alarm.  They  ordered  up  from  the 
men-of-war  at  Shanghai  guards  of  marines,  number- 
ing about  five  hundred  men.  These  arrived  by  rail. 
They  saved  the  situation. 

On  the  1 5th  of  June  pandemonium  broke  loose  in 
Peking.  The  Boxers  entered  the  city  in  force.  The 
missionaries  and  native  Christians  not  already  slaugh- 
tered gathered  in  the  Legation  quarter.  In  a  space 
of  about  ninety  acres,  between  the  imperial  and  the 
Chinese  city,  they  made  defence  by  building  barri- 
cades, and  strengthening  walls  and  houses  with  thou- 
sands of  sand-bags,  sewed  together  by  women,  filled 
and  placed  by  the  men.  An  American  missionary, 
who  in  Ithaca  and  at  Cornell  University  had  lamented 


296  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

his  waste  of  time  in  previous  study  of  engineering, 
was  made  superintendent  of  fortification.  With  his 
bicycle,  this  "  limited  omniscience,"  as  he  was  dubbed, 
watched  every  point,  night  and  day,  not  taking  off 
his  clothes  for  fifty-six  days. 

For  ten  days  the  siege  was  by  tens  of  thousands  of 
Boxers,  but  as  yet  it  was  ostensibly  only  the  work  of 
a  mob.  After  the  attack  on  the  Taku  forts  by  the 
allied  Powers,  except  —  be  it  said  most  honorably  — 
the  United  States,  the  Peking  government,  taking 
the  act  as  a  declaration  of  war,  let  loose  the  Manchu 
soldiery ;  from  June  25,  the  siege  was  by  the  regular 
army  of  the  Chinese  Empire. 

Already  sufficiently  warned  by  what  they  had  seen 
of  the  Boxers,  Mrs.  Drayton  and  Marian,  with  all 
their  household,  made  early  entrance  within  the  Lega- 
tion enclosure.  Their  pupils  assigned  with  the  native 
Christians,  the  two  ladies  took  up  their  quarters  with 
the  other  American  missionaries  in  the  chapel  of  the 
British  Legation,  and  at  once  began  cutting  material 
—  canvas,  burlap,  satin,  brocade,  embroidery,  and 
old  garments,  cheap  or  costly  —  and  sewing  sand- 
bags, while  the  men  made  bomb  proofs  and  barricades. 
Fortunately  good  stores  of  food  and  ammunition  were 
on  hand. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE   SIEGE   IN   PEKING. 

IT  is  not  for  our  pen  to  describe  the  fifty-six  days' 
siege,  of  which  so  many  eye-witnesses,  who  under- 
went its  terrible  experiences,  have  fully  written, 
except  so  far  as  relates  to  the  heroine  of  our  story  and 
her  friends  pressing  to  the  rescue. 

The  slow  days  and  hours  passed  away,  and  within 
that  regular  enclosure  of  Peking  were  still  nearly 
three  thousand  hoping  and  waiting  souls.  In  three 
thousand  human  hearts  the  strings  were  so  tense  that 
every  breath  of  news,  every  omen  of  cheer  or  discour- 
agement, was  like  the  sound  that  rises  from  a  wind 
harp  when  swept  by  the  breeze.  Some  were  given 
over  to  gloom,  and  like  the  doleful  whistling  buoys 
that  float  or  sink  on  the  waves,  they  gave  out  mourn- 
ful groans  or  less  noisy  sighs  as  they  rose  and  fell  on 
the  unquiet  waters  of  their  own  emotions. 

From  one  point  of  view  it  was  a  strange  situation, 
for  the  ear  dominated  all  senses.  No  eyes  were 
strained  during  the  daytime,  at  least,  to  watch  the 
coming  of  a  relief  force,  or  catch  the  first  glimpse 

297 


298  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

of  the  stern  radiance  of  bayonets,  for  walls  and 
houses  shut  in  the  vision.  Yet,  on  one  night,  it  was 
thought  that  flash-light  signals  of  relief  were  made, 
and  on  another  the  rockets  of  the  Japanese  were 
seen  in  imagination. 

Nor  could  any  of  the  other  senses,  save  one,  be 
exercised.  That  sense  was  hearing.  It  seemed  as 
though  with  hundreds,  and  especially  among  the 
women,  this  avenue  to  the  soul  was  made  an  unusually 
straight  path,  and  its  powers  became  almost  preter- 
naturally  sensitive.  Women  who  had  never  in  their 
lives  heard  a  hostile  shot  soon  learned  to  distinguish 
the  screaming,  the  tearing,  the  singing,  or  the  whiz- 
zing sound  of  the  different  kinds  of  missiles  that  des- 
olated the  air. 

Marian  Hopewell's  powers  were  quickly  cultivated 
in  this  direction.  With  the  help  of  a  music  teacher, 
who  was  more  expert  at  notation  than  in  fine  dis- 
tinctions recorded  by  the  auditory  nerve,  she  con- 
structed a  chart  or  page  of  "  music  "  in  which  both 
the  single  shots,  the  volleys,  and  the  fusillades  were 
represented  to  the  eye.  She  had  taken  a  hint  from 
a  book  representing  in  our  musical  score  the  various 
twitters,  bird-calls,  songs,  carols,  and  choruses  heard 
in  central  New  York. 

"  If  I  only  had  a  phonograph,  I  should  record  some 
of  these  hours,  when  the  concert  of  iron  and  lead  is 
particularly  lively." 


THE   SIEGE   IN   PEKING.  299 

"  As  for  me,"  said  the  music  teacher,  "  I  certainly 
should  like  to  have  caught  that  symphony  which  took 
place  the  other  night  during  a  thunder-storm.  I  have 
been  in  Boston  Music  Hall  and  at  the  great  chorus 
singing  in  New  York,  but  this  excelled  all  for  sublime 
noise,  if  not  .music  on  a  grand  scale." 

"  Did  you  enjoy  it  ?  "  asked  Marian. 

"  Indeed,  I  did.  When  the  thunder  was  bursting, 
rolling,  and  rattling,  the  lightning  most  vivid,  and  the 
rain  coming  down,  first  in  drops,  then  in  sheets,  and 
finally  in  floods,  and  the  reverberations  came  back 
from  the  hills,  you  know  how  dreadfully,  at  that  very 
time,  the  Chinese  cannon  and  rifles  broke  out  in  full 
play.  It  certainly  was  a  symphony." 

"  Yes,  that's  the  Chinese  idea  to  swell  the  volume 
of  noise,  for  evidently  they  hoped  to  win  victory  in 
this  way;  but  did  you  hear  nothing  else?"  asked 
Marian. 

"  Why,  no,  —  I  think  not." 

"Why,  there  were  trumpets  and  gongs  and  tom- 
toms and  other  noises  which  I  could  distinguish  very 
clearly,  in  the  intervals  between  the  different  sorts  of 
thunder  in  heaven  and  earth.  One  would  have 
thought  that  there  was  an  eclipse  of  the  sun,  and  that 
the  Chinese  were  at  their  old  business  of  pounding 
drums  and  raising  a  general  calathump,  in  order  to 
drive  away  the  dragon  that  was  swallowing  the  sun, 
and  make  him  disgorge  his  prey." 


300  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

Marian  soon  became  quite  proud  of  her  book  of 
"  Music  in  the  Air,"  as  she  called  it.  She  had  got 
into  the  habit  of  whiling  away  the  hours  of  certain 
days  by  jotting  down  in  her  journal  the  sound  records. 
Yet  on  some  days  the  firing  was  so  light,  or  the  lulls 
were  so  long,  that  "  silence  like  a  poultice  came  to 
heal  the  blows  of  sound."  The  "brilliant  flashes  of 
silence,"  strange  to  say,  seemed  almost  painful  to  bear. 
Indeed,  they  caused  a  feeling  of  alarm  such  as  one 
has  when  at  night  in  mid-ocean  the  machinery  stops 
and  the  passenger  wakes  up  fearful  and  foreboding. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  during  some  of  these  long 
stretches  of  silence  the  falcons  which  for  centuries 
have  acted  in  the  streets  of  Peking  as  scavengers  and 
that  had  been  driven  away  by  fire,  smoke,  and  noise 
of  war,  came  back  to  pursue  their  wonted  tasks. 
Along  with  the  song  of  the  canary,  that  thrived  de- 
spite the  lack  of  rape  and  hemp,  Marian  was  able  to 
enter  new  varieties  of  notes  upon  her  page,  wherever 
the  falcons  disagreed  over  their  banquets. 

Some  of  these  falcons  that  had  feasted  on  the 
abundant  garbage  of  the  Chinese  city  had  become 
quite  tame.  The  American  marine  in  Fort  Myers, 
which  was  a  strong  place  of  sand-bags  and  brick  ram- 
parts, reared  on  the  city  wall,  had  become  so  accus- 
tomed to  the  falcon's  call  that  he  easily  recognized 
it.  Once,  as  soldiers  will,  —  for  I  have  known  men 
who,  during  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg,  stopped  to 


THE   SIEGE   IN   PEKING.  301 

shoot  rabbits, —  after  a  long  period  of  inaction,  when 
there  were  no  Chinese  in  sight,  one  of  the  marines 
had  actually  tested  his  marksmanship  by  firing  at  and 
bringing  down  one  of  these  falcons,  calling  down 
also  a  reprimand  from  his  officer  for  wasting  a  single 
cartridge.  But  what  good  soldier  with  a  conscience, 
what  thinking  man  behind  the  bayonet,  but  wishes 
to  make  amends  for  delinquency  ? 

So  this  same  marine,  being  on  the  wall  a  few  nights 
later,  after  a  day  and  early  evening  that  had  been 
unusually  quiet,  heard  below  him,  somewhere  among 
the  rubbish  at  the  base  of  the  ponderous  wall,  a 
sound  that  was  like  a  falcon's  suppressed  or  distant 
scream,  but  which  the  soldier  could  hardly  believe 
was  the  real  bird.  At  any  rate  he  became  suspicious 
and  resolved  to  explore.  Peering  down,  still  unable 
to  see  anything,  he  heard  again  what  he  was  per- 
suaded was  an  imitation  of  the  call  of  a  falcon. 
Holding  his  rifle  so  that  he  could  sight  and  fire  it  in 
a  moment  if  necessary,  he  listened  again,  straining 
his  ear  toward  the  point  whence  the  sound  proceeded. 
In  a  moment  more,  instead  of  a  bird's  voice,  he  heard 
in  subdued  and  almost  audible  tones  the  words  :  — 

"  Good  Melican  man,  no  shoot.  Hab  got  chit. 
Thlow  piecee  rope.  Topside  belong." 

The  marine  took  the  hint  at  once.  Calling  a  com- 
rade, he  told  him  to  report  to  the  officer  on  duty  and 
to  bring  a  rope.  A  few  minutes  later,  taking  the  pre- 


302  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

caution  to  post  two  men  with  cocked  rifles  and  a 
reserve  on  the  wall  in  case  of  treachery,  by  order  of 
the  officer  a  rope  was  lowered  by  two  stalwart  men, 
who  in  the  darkness  could  barely  make  out  some- 
thing down  below,  thirty  feet  or  so,  that  gave  a  mild 
pull  as  the  rope  was  caught,  while  they  heard  a  voice 
saying,  "  All  light,  wait  awhile." 

In  about  a  minute  more  they  felt  the  signal  and 
heard :  — 

"  Pullee  up  topside.     All  light." 

The  two  strong  men  hoisted  up  their  burden,  pull- 
ing the  rope  hand  over  hand,  while  something  of  at 
least  a  hundred  pounds'  weight  was  heard  scraping 
against  the  stone  wall,  though  below  hands  and  feet 
were  vigorously  used  to  protect  somebody's  face  and 
skin.  Then  the  bundle  was  landed  on  top  of  the 
wall,  but  there  was  no  use  for  sword  or  bayonet,  nor 
indication  of  treachery.  Without  lighting  a  lamp  or 
lantern,  however,  the  man,  for  it  was  a  man,  was  led 
down  the  ramp  or  buttress  to  the  tent  pitched  by  the 
wall.  There  by  the  safe  light  of  a  lamp  screened 
from  any  possible  Boxer  sharp-shooter,  they  saw  a 
smiling  and  happy  young  fellow  of  about  twenty, 
who,  in  such  English  as  he  could  command,  told  in 
outline  his  story. 

Hoping  to  get  more  news  from  the  world  beyond, 
the  marine  officer  sent  for  one  of  the  many  missiona- 
ries who  could  understand  the  Chinese  language,  and 


THE   SIEGE   IN   PEKING.  303 

they  heard  the  man  tell  in  full  his  experiences.  In 
fact,  Dr.  Clinton  quickly  recognized  this  visitor,  who, 
though  now  in  beggar's  rags,  seemed  an  angel  of 
light.  Though  not  one  of  his  flock  or  member  of 
the  church,  he  was  often  present  as  a  hearer  and 
always  friendly.  He  was  a  woodworker  by  trade, 
and  had  supplied  various  household  articles  to  the 
Mission  Home. 

Ah  Hoy  was  his  name.  He  told  the  story  of  the 
advance  of  the  allied  army  from  Shanghai,  and  the 
assault  and  capture  of  Tientsin,  narrating  among 
other  incidents  what  he  had  heard  of  the  valor  of 
the  Japanese  soldier  at  the  gate,  the  bravery  and 
slaughter  of  the  American  soldiers  in  the  rice  field, 
and  the  death  of  Colonel  Liscum.  They  questioned 
him  on  many  points,  but  some  of  these  questions 
he  was  utterly  unable  to  answer.  Yet  he  gave  in 
general  a  clear  and  consistent  account  of  what  he 
had  seen. 

"  How  were  you  able  to  get  through  our  line  of 
pickets  after  being  among  the  American  soldiers?" 
asked  the  cross-questioner. 

"  Oh,"  said  the  Chinaman,  and  we  shall  here  put 
his  own  words  into  good  American  speech,  "it  was 
I  myself  that  offered  to  carry  a  message  into  Peking, 
and  this  officer,  Mr.  Burnham,  who  seemed  very  happy 
at  my  proposal,  agreed  to  pay  me  well,  whether  I  suc- 
ceeded or  failed,  and  a  double  reward  of  ten  taels  in 


304  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

silver  if  I  got  back  to  him,  and  five  if  I  succeeded 
in  delivering  his  letter." 

"  A  letter !    Have  you  a  letter  ?  "  asked  Dr.  Clinton. 

"  Oh,  yes,  and  here  it  is,"  taking  out  an  old  wooden 
bowl  from  inside  the  breast  of  his  dirty  blouse  and 
rapping  on  the  bottom  of  it  as  if  he  were  playing  a 
tambourine,  "it's  inside  that." 

Dr.  Clinton  took  the  bowl  and  struck  it,  but  it 
did  not  sound  as  if  it  were  hollow.  Although  extra 
lanterns  were  brought  "to  throw  more  light  on  the 
subject,"  as  Dr.  Clinton  said,  neither  he  nor  any  one 
else  could  discern  any  marks  of  a  crack  or  opening. 

"  Break  it  carefully,"  said  the  Chinaman,  "  or  let 
me  do  it." 

They  handed  the  bowl  back  to  him,  and  he,  hold- 
ing it  firmly  on  the  edge  of  a  big  stone,  rent  the  bowl 
as  young  Samson  might  have  torn  asunder  the  lion's 
jaws,  and  in  a  trice  the  black  varnished  vessel  showed 
the  white  wood  inside.  Sticking  out  from  the  bottom 
of  one  half  was  a  piece,  or  rather  a  packet,  of  tough 
white  paper  which  bent  but  did  not  tear,  and  was 
easily  lifted  out  from  its  enclosing  timber.  It  was 
not  bigger,  and  not  much  thicker,  than  a  "clean 
Mexican  "  dollar.  On  the  outside  of  the  cover,  care- 
fully, firmly  pasted  together  with  a  grain  or  two  of 
boiled  rice,  was  the  superscription  in  a  bold,  manly 
hand,  — "  Miss  Marian  Hopewell,  of  the  American 
Mission  Home,  Peking." 


THE   SIEGE   IN    PEKING.  305 

The  letter  was  immediately  despatched  to  the 
young  lady  by  one  of  the  marines,  and  as  he  is  on 
his  way  to  play  the  joyful  game  of  letter  carrier,  let 
us  hear  further  concerning  this  messenger. 

It  was  the  man's  thorough  knowledge  of  the  cus- 
toms of  his  own  country,  joined  to  wit  and  good 
sense,  that  had  made  his  journey  and  entry  success- 
ful. Knowing  the  multitude  of  beggars  and  the 
enormous  number  of  people  in  Peking  who  are  blind, 
not  only  through  neglect  of  eye  disease  in  infancy, 
by  accidents,  and  by  dust  storms,  but  also  by  the 
self-inflicted  injury  and  loss  of  sight  caused  by  put- 
ting quicklime  inside  the  eyelids,  in  order  to  play 
upon  the  compassion  of  the  public,  especially  of 
the  women  visiting  the  temples,  the  young  China- 
man, Ah  Hoy,  resolved  to  attempt  the  hazardous 
mission. 

He  had  donned  the  filthy  and  ragged  garments 
of  a  beggar,  had  pretended  to  be  blind,  and  had 
even  with  easily  known  drugs  scarified  the  outside 
of  his  eyelids  and  portions  of  the  skin  around  the 
eye  sockets  so  as  to  make  them  blister  and  even 
suppurate. 

While  undergoing  this  temporary  disfigurement,  he 
had  bought  at  one  of  the  junk  shops  a  wooden  bowl, 
such  as  beggars  generally  use.  Being  himself  an 
expert  woodworker,  he  had  with  a  fine  thin  tool 
bored,  scraped,  and  gouged  out  enough  space  from 


306  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

the  solid  bottom  to  make  room  for  a  letter,  which  he 
told  the  sender  to  make  of  particular  dimensions 
and  circular  shape. 

Receiving  the  precious  missive,  he  had,  by  dint  of 
patience  and  skill,  worked  it  inside  of  the  hollow 
receptacle  so  as  to  fit  snugly.  Then,  with  that  nicety 
of  fitting  which  distinguishes  the  woodworkers  of 
China,  he  had  cut  a  plug  of  well-dried  wood  which 
exactly  fitted  the  orifice.  He  had  so  squeezed  the 
lower  inner  edge  of  the  plug  that,  after  scraping  out 
slightly  the  solid  wood  inside,  so  as  to  make  a  bevel, 
the  fitted  piece  when  forced  in  and  then  dampened, 
expanded,  making  a  flange  which,  fitting  in  the  bevel, 
could  not  again  be  forced  out.  Then,  scraping  the 
entire  outside  of  the  bowl  clean,  he  gave  the  whole  a 
fresh  coat  of  varnish,  so  that  the  color  in  every  part 
seemed  perfectly  uniform.  What  with  the  expansion 
of  the  plug  and  the  sinking  in  the  seam  of  the  var- 
nish, several  coats  being  applied,  it  was  impossible 
for  the  keenest  eye  to  detect  where  the  opening  had 
been.  Nor  would  any  suspect  one.  It  was  easy 
enough  then  to  rub  the  fresh  varnish  into  dulness  by 
means  of  dirt  and  grease,  while  the  experiences  of 
several  days'  journeying  might  be  trusted  to  give  the 
utensil  a  sufficiently  antique  and  battered  look,  as  of 
a  veteran  in  a  beggar's  service. 

So  as  a  sightless  mendicant,  as  but  one  among  a 
myriad  ever  roaming  up  and  down  the  country,  seek- 


THE   SIEGE   IN    PEKING.  307 

ing  food  or  the  garbage  and  refuse  which  the  poor 
and  starving  make  substitutes  for  food,  Ah  Hoy 
started  out. 

At  three  places  he  was  challenged  and  searched. 
At  both  Yangtsun  and  at  Tung  Chow,  he  was 
stripped  and  his  clothes  carefully  gone  through  by 
skilled  searchers.  Even  the  soles  of  his  shoes  were 
ripped  open  to  see  if  he  had  anything  contraband. 
Before  he  could  get  into  the  Chinese  city  at  Peking, 
his  new  shoes,  which  had  been  given  him  after  the 
others  were  cut  to  pieces,  excited  suspicion.  Though 
he  was  not  stripped  this  time,  these  were  again  torn 
open,  and  his  queue  was  unplaited  to  see  if  anything 
was  hidden  there ;  but  in  every  case  neither  his  eyes 
nor  his  bowl  were  especially  looked  at. 

Blindness,  beggary,  and  bowls  were  too  common 
to  excite  scrutiny  or  interest,  and  glass  or  false  eyes 
were  not  frequent  enough  to  become,  as  is  told  in  a 
tale  of  South  Africa,  the  receptacles  either  of  dia- 
monds or  epistles.  So  he  was  able  not  only  to  get 
to  Peking,  but  once  inside  the  Chinese  city,  which  he 
knew  as  his  native  place,  he  had  no  difficulty  under 
cover  of  the  night  in  reaching  that  part  of  the  city 
wall  beyond  the  space  occupied  by  camps,  batteries, 
and  sentinels,  and  in  crouching  in  the  shadow  among 
the  rubbish  under  Fort  Myers. 

The  coming  of  the  blind  beggar  was  like  a  great 
burst  of  sunshine  through  a  rift  of  clouds  to  the 


308  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

whole  community  of  besieged,  but  to  Marian  Hope- 
well  it  was  as  the  dayspring  of  a  long,  bright  day  of 
blue  sky,  ushered  in  by  golden  horizons  and  balmy 
air  and  the  singing  of  June  birds.  Carefully  cutting 
open  the  outer  envelope  of  the  round,  flat  package, 
which  was  as  a  silver  dollar  in  size,  but  as  sapphires 
in  value,  she  read  on  the  thin,  French  "  correspond- 
ence paper "  the  following,  written  with  a  fine  steel 
pen  of  the  crow  quill  sort :  — 

"CAMP  LISCUM,  OUTSIDE  OF  TIENTSIN, 
"July  15,  1900. 

"  DEAREST  MARIAN  :  Here  I  am,  and  within 
eighty  miles  of  you  —  so  near  and  yet  so  far.  I  am 
coming  to  bring  you  my  life,  if  God  will,  and  to  offer 
it  wholly  to  you,  or  else  to  leave  my  body  here  on 
the  soil  of  China  in  the  hope  and  prayer  that  God 
will  give  this  nation  a  new  birth  of  civilization,  of 
science,  and  of  salvation. 

"You  know  how  six  years  ago  we  parted:  you  to 
follow  an  inward  voice,  and  I  to  live  not  without 
hope,  for  you  asked  that  five  years  might  pass  by 
before  I  should  come  to  you  again.  More  than  that 
time  has  elapsed.  I  could  not  come  on  the  day,  or 
hour,  and  you  know  why.  When  my  hopes  of  being 
a  life-long  student  and  an  author  were  dashed 
through  my  mother's  death  and  my  father's  decision 
to  make  me  a  business  man,  I  tried,  after  my  brief 


THE   SIEGE   IN   PEKING.  309 

adventures  as  war  correspondent,  to  settle  down  to 
the  office,  to  the  market,  and  to  the  trade,  but  I 
failed  —  with  fault,  it  may  be,  and  perhaps  I  deserve 
condemnation.  Even  now,  should  God  bring  us  out 
of  this  hell  of  war  into  'the  days  of  heaven  upon 
earth,'  into  our  own  homeland,  I  could  not  promise 
you  wealth  or  luxury,  but  only  that  simple  compe- 
tence which  every  man  can  earn  in  our  America, 
the  land  of  golden  opportunities. 

"You  know  how  my  father  failed  in  business,  and 
how,  on  going  back  home,  I  tried  this  and  that  career, 
only  to  find  myself  a  failure.  Without  help  or  cheer 
from  my  father,  my  mother  dead,  and  the  one  woman 
of  all  the  world  far  away,  carrying  the  cross  of  con- 
science and  of  consecration,  —  so  that  when  I  needed 
most  her  encouragement  I  had  to  do  without  it,  — 
what  could  I  do  but  become  a  soldier  ?  I  did  so  and 
enlisted  in  the  army  as  a  private  in  the  Ninth  Infan- 
try regiment  of  the  regular  army. 

"  Once  I  should  have  looked  upon  such  a  step  with 
horror,  but  now  I  am  happy  to  say  that  our  United 
States  army  is,  in  its  rank  and  file,  far  more  worthy 
of  the  attention  of  native-born  Americans,  yes,  even 
of  young  men  proud  of  their  descent  from  the  pio- 
neers on  the  good  ship  New  Netherland,  or  from  the 
Mayflower s  company,  or  the  Puritans,  or  Pennsyl- 
vanians,  and  no  man  has  now  a  right  to  call  an 
American  soldier  in  the  ranks  'either  common  or 


310  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

unclean.'  There  are  no  *  common*  soldiers  any  more, 
except  as  the  men  choose  by  liquor  or  bad  conduct 
to  make  themselves  vulgar  or  beastly.  So  in  delib- 
erate choice  I  can  truly  say  that,  without  making  a 
virtue  of  a  necessity,  I  became  an  enlisted  man  even 
before  the  oceanic  event  of  May  i,  1898,  gave  us 
our  Eastern  possessions  in  the  Philippines.  Now  I 
can  every  day  thank  God  that  I  was  sent  to  the 
Philippines,  for  that  has  brought  me  to  China.  As 
an  American  and  an  individual,  I  am  proud  of  our 
little  army,  as  well  as  of  the  government  and  people 
whom  I  serve. 

"About  a  year  ago  I  passed  the  examination 
allowed  to  a  private,  and  was  almost  immediately 
appointed  to  a  vacancy,  receiving  my  commission 
of  lieutenant.  So  here  I  am,  leading  my  own  com- 
rades to  the  rescue  not  only  of  my  fellow-countrymen 
and  to  the  prisoners  of  Christendom,  —  which  pagan- 
ism and  Manchu  savagery  have  shut  up,  —  but  I  am 
also  coming  to  the  rescue  of  the  one  whom  I  love 
best  in  all  the  world.  Oh,  Marian,  pray  hard,  not 
that  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth,  who  never  makes  any 
mistakes,  will  do  for  us  exactly  what  we  want,  but 
that  He  give  us  rather  what  we  need,  and  that  we 
may  gladly  do  His  will.  Whether  one  or  both  of  us 
are  to  yield  our  lives,  with  the  others,  for  the  making 
of  the  Christian  China  that  is  to  come,  or  both  are  to 
live,  we  cannot  foresee ;  but  whatever  befall  us,  may 


THE   SIEGE   IN   PEKING.  311 

we  be  one  in  hand,  and  heart,  and  life.  After  our 
duty  in  China  is  done,  may  we  here  and  now  on  this 
solid  earth  be  joined  as  husband  and  wife  and  walk 
together  through  the  coming  years. 

"  Tell  all  the  Americans  and  others  now  besieged 
to  keep  up  hope,  for  we  shall  soon  be  there.  I  can- 
not believe  the  rumors  of  Boxer-Manchu  success. 
We  shall  yet  rescue  you.  There  are  eight  nations 
of  us,  but  we  all  have  one  heart  and  purpose.  I 
cannot  tell  you  how  proud  I  am  of  my  Japanese  sol- 
diers. I  say  '  my  Japanese  soldiers,'  for  Masaro, 
my  dear  friend,  is  one  of  them,  and  they  are  to  me 
as  brothers.  To  see  my  countrymen  and  the  Mi- 
kado's men  marching  as  comrades,  and  more,  that  the 
Japanese  lead  the  van  of  rescue,  delights  me  daily. 
I  almost  feel  like  singing  '  Onward,  Christian 
soldiers,'  as  indeed  hundreds  of  the  Japanese  sol- 
diers and  sailors  and  officers  from  corporal  to  rear 
admiral  are.  Forever  and  to  '  ages  eternal '  may 
the  sun  banner  and  the  flag  of  the  stars  and  the 
stripes  be  joined  for  the  good  of  the  world,  and 
the  United  States  and  the  Empire  of  the  Rising 
Sun  have  their  links  of  friendship  forged  afresh  in 
these  war  fires,  without  possibility  of  ever  snapping 
asunder ! 

"We  have  an  awful  country  to  march  through, 
flat,  dusty,  and  uninspiring,  with  filthy  water  in  the 
Peiho  River,  and  very  little  fit  to  drink  that  is  not 


312  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

also  hard  to  get.  Yet  if  we  can  only  keep  up  with 
the  Japanese,  we  hope  to  get  into  Peking  in  ten 
days.  God  keep  you  —  and  me. 

"  Ever  and  forever  yours, 

"CLARENCE  BURNHAM." 

"  My  brave !  God  bring  you  in  safety  to  me. 
Heavenly  Father,  speed  him.  Make  me  worthy  of  his 
valor.  Save  us  all." 

This  was  Marian's  prayer  —  a  quick  and  silent  one, 
for  even  in  her  eagerness  she  would  not  keep  her 
friends  near  her  too  long  waiting.  She  soon  com- 
municated to  them  the  substance  of  the  message. 

It  was  a  strange,  calm  sleep  that  Marian  slept 
that  night.  In  the  garden  of  dreams,  arrayed  in 
summer's  snowy  garb,  she  wandered  amid  daisied 
paths. 

The  sunny  fields,  the  fruit-laden  trees,  the  grand 
mountains,  the  familiar  paths,  were  those  of  home  in 
the  Hudson  valley.  With  her  walked  a  handsome 
officer  in  blue,  on  whose  head  was  a  white  linen 
helmet  with  resplendent  frontlet  bearing  the  figure  9. 
Though  it  was  summer,  one  tree  was  still  in  bloom, 
and  the  petals  that  dropped  from  it  over  her  head  and 
into  her  hand  were  orange  blossoms.  Then  it  seemed 
she  was  in  a  procession  moving  into  the  church,  where, 
at  the  end  of  the  aisle  below  the  pulpit,  her  father 
welcomed  her  —  and  him,  with  a  beaming  smile. 


THE   SIEGE   IN   PEKING.  313 

There,  with  Clarence  Burnham,  she  stood  and  heard 
the  words :  — 

"  The  Father  of  all  mercies,  who  of  His  grace 
hath  called  you  to  this  holy  state  of  marriage,  bind 
you  in  true  love  and  faithfulness,  and  grant  you  His 
blessing." 

After  this  she  turned  around  to  leave  the  church. 
She  leaned  on  the  arm  of  her  husband,  and,  behold, 
all  her  Chinese  girls  were  there  smiling  congratula- 
tions out  of  their  eyes. 

But  it  was  only  a  dream.  She  woke  up  to  a  fort- 
night more  of  monotony  and  strain,  while  without  the 
relief  column  crawled  on.  As  the  slow,  hot  days 
passed  she  thought  — 

How  shall  I  welcome  him  ?  At  least  a  cup  of  hot 
tea  and  some  delicacy  from  the  chafing  dish  might 
refresh  a  tired  soldier.  And,  indeed,  despite  all  the 
blood  and  slaughter  on  the  walls,  where  the  brave 
defenders  were  steadily  fighting,  and,  alas,  hourly  fall- 
ing, there  was  comfort  within  the  main  area  and  the 
various  Legation  quarters. 

The  ladies  wore  their  bright  fresh  dresses,  as  if 
at  home,  and  the  men  were  in  clean  white.  There 
were  yet  good  supplies  of  food  and  drink.  The 
real  danger  was  in  the  depletion  of  the  guards,  for 
the  siege  had  filled  the  hospitals  and  made  grave- 
yards. The  possibility  of  the  Manchus  concen- 
trating and  with  a  rush  and  ladders  storming  the 


3 14  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

enclosure  was  great.  However  brave,  how  could  the 
defenders  keep  off  a  horde  numbering  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  men  ? 

It  is  now  time  to  tell  how  Clarence  Burnham  and 
Masaro  came  to  be  in  the  army  of  rescue. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

"EXPANSION" — JAPANESE  AND  AMERICAN. 

THIS  is  the  young  man's  century  in  New  Japan, 
for  "  new  measures  require  new  men." 

In  old  Japan,  the  older  men  ruled,  but  the 
revolution^  of  1868  was  a  student's  movement.  In 
its  constructive  features,  at  least,  it  was  largely  the 
work  of  young  men  trained  for  the  most  part  by 
American  missionaries,  or  educated  in  Europe.  Not 
a  few  of  the  clansmen  most  active  in  bringing  about 
the  restoration  of  the  Mikado  to  full  power  had  in- 
herited the  ideas  of  enlightened  fathers  or  kinsmen, 
who  had  absorbed  some  of  the  science  and  culture  of 
Europe  through  the  Dutch  at  Nagasaki.  Probably  a 
majority  were  able  to  read  Dutch. 

Suddenly  called  from  the  work  of  destruction  and 
overthrow  to  that  of  building  up  a  new  government, 
and  making  a  nation  that  should  be  able  to  compete 
with  the  proud  peoples  of  the  West,  these  youngsters 
would  have  been  glad  to  utilize  the  wisdom  of  experi- 
ence. Had  the  older  men  come  forward  to  help  them 


316  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

with  that  kind  of  knowledge  required  by  the  times 
and  the  new  situation,  they  would  have  gladly  lis- 
tened. Yet  this  combination  of  years  with  insight 
was  lacking,  and  so  the  young  men  had  of  necessity 
to  fill  the  high  stations  of  responsibility  out  of  their 
own  number.  They,  perforce,  shaped  the  new  civili- 
zation of  Japan,  depending  first  upon  the  missionaries 
and  then  upon  such  men  of  talent  and  expertness  as 
they  could  invite  from  beyond  sea  to  assist  them 
wisely. 

Nevertheless,  while  employing  foreign  advisers 
numerously,  they  kept  all  the  power  in  their  own 
hands,  sedulously  refusing  to  imitate  blindly,  or  to 
become  copyists  or  passive  recipients.  They  di- 
rected, controlled,  and  thought  out  their  own  prob- 
lems, "  adopting  nothing,  adapting  everything." 

Yet  from  time  to  time  there  were  reactions.  Con- 
servatism tried  to  bring  in  the  old  forces  and  figures. 
When  armed  rebellion  in  the  field  was  crushed,  the 
owls  and  the  bats,  the  Chauvinists,  the  Soshi  (stal- 
warts), the  pro-Chinese  and  champions  of  Confucius, 
and  the  old  order  tried  to  capture  the  schoolroom, 
and  Masaro,  as  a  young  man  at  the  end  of  the  cen- 
tury, saw  some  things  in  civil  life  as  others  had  seen 
in  war,  when  straw  mats  were  made  armor  against 
rifle  balls. 

In  the  late  seventies,  the  fanaticism  of  reaction 
had  sent  into  the  field  thousands  of  misguided  men 


"EXPANSION"— JAPANESE  AND  AMERICAN.    317 

with  beetle-headed  helmets  and  armor  of  hide,  lac- 
quered paper  and  iron,  laced  together  with  silk  and 
cords,  to  face  rifled  artillery  firing  shrapnel.  With 
spear,  sword,  and  bow  and  arrow,  these  who  trusted 
in  things  ancient  went  out  to  fight  drilled  soldiers 
armed  with  American  rifles. 

Not  more  curious,  however,  was  the  attempt  of 
paganism  to  regain  from  idol  worship  and  priestcraft 
the  positions  won  by  a  purer  religion  in  harmony 
with  science  by  importing  from  India  relics  of  the 
Buddha,  and  by  "  starring  "  processions  of  the  local 
gods  and  idols.  Nor  any  the  less  grotesque  were  the 
attempts  of  teachers  of  Chinese  ethics  to  win  back 
the  mind  of  Japan  to  mediaeval  systems  of  morals, 
and  to  cramp  once  more  and  hinder  from  further 
growth  the  expanding  and  the  expanded  intellects  of 
the  nation.  Masaro  saw  the  curious  spectacle  of  old 
gentlemen  in  ancient  garments  and  big  horn-rimmed 
eye-glasses,  sitting  in  schoolrooms  furnished  in  mod- 
ern style,  trying  to  train  the  young  mind  in  Chinese 
methods  and  systems. 

It  was  all  of  no  use.  Somehow  the  air  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  was  withering  to  the  Chinese  exotic. 
Exit  antiquity,  enter  a  new  opposer  of  progress,  this 
time  masquerading  under  the  name  of  patriotism. 

Yes,  it  was  "  nationalism  "  this  time.  The  wave 
swept  over  the  land,  playing  havoc  with  much  of 
good  that  had  been  wrought  by  the  foreign  teachers 


3i 8  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

and  the  wise  natives.  For  a  while  the  doughty  cham- 
pions of  "  Japan  for  the  Japanese  "  hoped  to  have  a 
Japanese  religion,  Japanese  ethics,  Japanese  art,  and 
in  general  a  Japanese  theory  of  the  universe.  For 
at  least  two  years  after  the  war  with  China  the  aver- 
age Japanese  suffered  with  the  disease  known  as 
"  big  head."  It  was  an  epidemic  that  included 
nearly  the  whole  nation.  How  the  heathen  did  rage! 
How  the  little  animals  did  frisk!  Some  of  them 
really  thought  that  their  little  Japan  was  going  to 
dictate  law,  manners,  morals,  religion,  diplomacy,  and 
pretty  much  everything  to  mankind  and  the  universe 
at  large. 

Gradually  it  dawned  upon  these  insular  gentlemen 
that  all  this  was  simply  Chauvinism,  and  that  Japan's 
life  must  flow  into  that  of  the  world  at  large,  if  her 
people  were  to  hold  and  keep  the  treasures  of  civili- 
zation already  won.  The  wisest  among  them  saw 
clearly  that  the  adoption  or  the  adaptation  of  Western 
principles  and  practice  availed  nothing  against  the 
strong  nations  of  the  West,  unless  with  these  came 
new  moral  forces  and  new  spiritual  power. 

Masaro,  though  hating  war,  and  equally  a  hater  of 
paganism  and  priestcraft,  detested  that  sham  Christi- 
anity and  pure  hypocrisy  which  seemed  to  him  so 
often  the  mainspring  of  Western  diplomacy  and 
policy  in  Asia.  Studying  the  career  of  Great  Britain 
and  of  English-speaking  nations,  he  saw  a  race  which 


"EXPANSION"— JAPANESE  AND  AMERICAN.    319 

in  the  unfolding  of  its  own  genius  attained  to  liberty 
and  governed  itself  by  constitutional  forms,  its  strug- 
gles being  mainly  with  its  own  kings  and  rulers.  He 
could  not  admire  the  Latin  races,  because  they  were 
too  much  like  the  weaker  sort  of  his  own  countrymen. 
They  seemed  to  crave  logical  and  ready-made  sys- 
tems. 

In  Germany,  he  saw  a  historical  yet  artificial  crea- 
tion of  government,  where  the  rights  of  the  individual 
were  less  considered  than  the  good  of  the  state  and 
the  bonds  of  duty,  the  basis  of  all  being  the  army,  by 
which  national  greatness  had  been  obtained.  Strong 
nationalist  as  he  was,  he  was  led  to  believe  that  this 
idea,  rightly  applied  and  limited,  would  be  the  best 
force  in  making  Japan  a  world  power.  Through  the 
overmastering  influence  of  the  American  mission- 
aries, who  were  the  real  tutors  of  New  Japan,  Masa- 
ro's  country  had  become  the  virtual  companion  and 
ally  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  peoples.  He  thought  it 
best  that  this  development  should  be  modified,  at 
least,  by  the  modern  Germanic  principle. 

With  him,  conviction  meant  action.  Entering  the 
military  school  and  toiling  through  his  round  of 
studies  during  three  years,  it  was  his  joy  in  due  time 
to  receive  appointment  as  lieutenant  in  that  army 
which  is  virtually  a  great  school.  The  assignment 
of  his  position  was  to  the  second  battalion  of  the 
Eleventh  Regiment  of  Infantry. 


320  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

During  all  this  time  Masaro  and  Clarence  Burnham 
had  kept  up  a  regular  correspondence.  The  letters  of 
the  latter  show  that  after  the  blowing  up  of  the  United 
States  battleship  Maine  in  Havana  harbor  the  young 
patriot  became  a  soldier.  A  former  college  chum  in 
Rutgers,  now  captain  in  the  United  States  marines, 
had  called  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  privates  stood 
a  fair  chance  of  promotion  to  commissions,  and  that 
already  over  twenty  sons  of  officers,  unable  to  get 
into  West  Point,  were  in  the  ranks  hopefully  await- 
ing opportunity. 

This  decided  Clarence  Burnham,  who  enlisted  at 
once  in  the  Ninth  Infantry,  saw  service  in  Cuba  at 
San  Juan  Hill,  and  later  went  to  the  Philippines, 
where,  soon  after  passing  examination,  a  vacancy 
offered  and  he  was  made  lieutenant.  Early  in  1900 
he  wrote  to  his  friend  Masaro  as  follows  :  — 

"  I  see  that  while  we  have  the  assassins  and  snipers 
in  the  Philippines,  China  has  her  Boxers.  How  curi- 
ous it  is  that  while  no  one  here  seems  to  think  any- 
thing of  this  fanatical  movement,  I  cannot  help 
believing  it  the  beginning  of  big  troubles  that  may 
call  for  foreign  intervention.  Wouldn't  it  be  odd  if 
we  should  meet  in  China?  It  would  be  a  happy 
day  for  me  if  I  could  see  the  stars  and  stripes  and 
the  banner  of  the  rising  sun  joined  in  brotherhood 
together,  and  the  Emperor's  and  Uncle  Sam's  soldiers 
marching  as  comrades  together.  Then  Japan  would 


"EXPANSION"  — JAPANESE  AND  AMERICAN.    321 

show  the  world  her  true  spirit,  and  even,  if  necessary, 
proclaim  the  reality  of  her  civilization  from  the 
dragon  throne  in  Peking.  '  Banzai !  Banzai ! ' ' 

Turning  back  to  "the  wonderful  year  of  1898,"  we 
see  that  it  was  filled  with  surprises  for  others  than 
our  heroes. 

It  was  for  the  American  people  as  if  a  majestic  ves- 
sel, long  and  carefully  sheltered  in  a  great  ship  house 
by  the  river  or  the  ocean  shore,  had  suddenly  had 
the  ropes  cut  that  bound  her  to  the  land.  Long 
habituated  to  her  first  enclosing  and  environment,  it 
must  have  seemed  a  wonderful  experience  —  a  golden 
shower  of  honor,  as  of  the  mighty  Jupiter  upon  lovely 
Danae,  had  she  been  conscious,  to  have  suddenly 
stand  upon  her  deck  a  company,  not  of  the  workmen 
that  had  wrought  upon  her  ribs  and  sides,  but  of 
those  most  concerned  about  her  future.  Then,  with 
stays  and  shores  knocked  away,  and  the  clamps  and 
binding  ropes  removed,  "  with  a  thrill  of  life  along 
her  keel,"  to  find  herself  in  new  element,  and  with  a 
new  and  larger  career  before  her. 

It  was  like  a  change  of  worlds.  Yet  to  leave  the 
old  and  enter  the  new  with  grace  and  power,  and  to 
feel  that  she  was  fitted  for  her  new  environment,  yes, 
girded  with  power  and  a  mistress,  and  no  longer 
a  servant,  must  have  seemed  like  life  that  is  life 
indeed. 

Are  we  foolish  in  our   imagination  ?      Yet   what 


322  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

son  of  a  sailor,  and  heir  of  the  Devonshire  kings 
of  the  sea,  can  think  of  a  ship  other  than  as  a  fair 
woman  ? 

So  felt  the  American  people  when  Spain,  by  the 
savagery  of  mediaeval  methods  in  war  and  govern- 
ment, almost  as  atrocious  as  those  of  Boxer  or  Man- 
chu,  compelled  them  to  leave  their  old  environment 
and  to  launch  out  into  new  seas  of  the  unexpected. 
Destiny  seemed  to  bid  the  United  States  stretch  out 
a  strong  right  arm  in  the  West  Indies  and  with  the 
left  to  take  hold  of  the  Philippines. 

Willy-nilly,  our  country  became  a  world  power, 
while  yet  our  people  listened  to  hear  the  clear  ringing 
warning  of  the  greatest  of  Americans  against  "en- 
tangling alliances." 

To  hold  the  Philippines  it  was  necessary  to  send  an 
army  of  occupation.  When  Manchu  rulers  of  China, 
with  intelligence  about  equal  to  that  of  Apaches  or 
Comanches,  defied  the  world,  in  June,  1900,  two  years 
had  passed  by  since  our  brothers  in  blue  had  lived 
amid  bamboo  groves,  in  villages  with  cathedrals  and 
churches  of  Spanish  architecture,  amid  friars  and 
Filipinos,  among  water  buffaloes  and  innumerable 
insect  pests  and  vermin.  Clarence  Burnham,  both  as 
private  and  as  officer  in  the  Ninth  United  States 
Infantry,  learned  new  phases  of  life  in  the  Orient,  in 
an  archipelago  where  corrupt  European  civilization 
and  sham  Christianity  had  helped  to  make  a  tangle 


"EXPANSION"— JAPANESE  AND  AMERICAN.    323 

which  will  tax  the  resources  of  American  statesmen, 
for  generations  to  come,  to  unravel. 

When  the  Boxer  uprising  in  China  put  the  legations 
of  Christendom  in  peril,  it  became  necessary  for  our 
government  to  send  succor  as  fast  as  brave  hearts 
with  their  servants,  steam  and  electricity,  could  bring 
it  to  the  beleaguered  representatives  in  Peking  —  an 
oasis  of  moral  force  in  the  great  desert  of  paganism's 
savagery.  So  while  the  telegraph  whispered  under 
sea  from  Washington  to  Manila  ordering  General 
Otis  to  send  the  gallant  Ninth  immediately  to  the 
work  in  China,  the  famous  Sixth  Cavalry,  with 
infantry  recruits,  marines,  and  sailors,  was  sent  direct 
to  China  in  the  transport  Grant. 

The  expeditionary  force  of  twenty-five  thousand 
men  was  put  under  the  command  of  Major  General 
Adna  Romanza  Chaffee.  Once  an  American  boy, 
educated  in  the  public  schools  of  Ohio,  Chaffee  entered 
the  United  States  army  July  22,  1861,  as  private, 
serving  in  the  Civil,  Indian,  and  Spanish  wars.  Brave, 
kindly,  chivalrous,  what  American  soldier  did  not 
burn  to  serve  with  such  an  officer  in  China  ? 

So  while  the  Grant  was  speeding  across  the 
Pacific,  her  management  and  outfit  proving  that  the 
Americans  could  beat  even  the  long-experienced  Brit- 
ish in  the  management  of  "troop  ships,"  the  boys  of 
the  gallant  Ninth  were  moving  northward  up  the 
ocean  now  and  to  be  the  centre  of  the  world's  future 


324  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

story.  Our  United  States  sailors  and  marines  had 
shown  valor  and  won  fame  in  Chinese  waters  ;  but  now 
for  the  first  time  soldiers  of  our  regular  army  were  to 
set  foot  in  China  and  march  against  the  dragon  throne. 
At  Tientsin  they  met  the  great  international  force, 
with  which  eight  civilized  nations  were  to  confront 
the  eight  banners  and  host  of  the  Manchus. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE   AMERICAN    SOLDIERS    IN    CHINA. 

THE  Ninth  United  States  Infantry  arrived  July 
1 2th,  after  the  Taku  forts  had  been  attacked 
by  the  allies,  and  the  Chinese  had  therefore 
taken  the  offensive  at  Tientsin,  where  fourteen 
thousand  allied  troops  were  soon  to  be  assembled. 
At  first  the  foreign  troops  were  without  artillery, 
while  the  Chinese  had  abundance  of  cannon  of  all 
sorts.  So  the  bayonet  had  to  come  into  play.  Our 
marines,  aided  by  English  and  Japanese,  stormed  the 
arsenal  and  destroyed  the  batteries. 

The  fortified  part  of  the  city  was  not  to  be  taken 
so  easily.  Twelve  feet  high  and  wide,  and  bristling 
with  cannon,  was  the  wall.  It  was  arranged  that 
while  the  Russians  stormed  the  east  gates,  Americans, 
British,  and  Japanese  should  attack  on  the  south  side. 
To  the  Japanese  was  assigned  the  task  of  blowing 
up  the  south  gate.  Then  all  three  detachments 
were  to  rush  in. 

No  troops  ever  fought  more  bravely  than  our 
Ninth  at  Tientsin.  One  battalion  saved  the  day  for 

325 


326  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

the  allies  by  dashing  across  a  bridge  in  a  critical 
moment  and  securing  a  strong  position.  The  other 
battalion,  assigned  to  a  position  amid  swamps  and 
watercourses,  ran  against  a  group  of  fortified  houses, 
and  in  the  terrible  storm  of  lead  and  fire  lost  nearly 
one-fourth  of  their  number  and  among  them  their 
brave  Colonel  Liscum.  Without  reinforcements,  and 
obliged  to  wait  behind  graves  and  in  mud  and  water 
till  merciful  darkness  fell  on  the  field,  they  withdrew 
for  shelter  behind  the  mud  wall  encircling  the  whole 
city. 

Had  the  Chinese  been  men  of  initiative  and  energy, 
the  whole  allied  force,  clearly  defeated  as  they  were, 
would  have  been  annihilated.  All  day  long  on  the 
left  had  hovered  a  large  body  of  Chinese  cavalry, 
and  although  watched  by  only  one  company  of  our 
marines  and  a  troop  of  Japanese  horsemen,  they 
made  no  approach. 

Our  wounded  were  not  left  uncared  for,  although 
in  the  moonlight  the  Chinese  kept  up  their  fire. 
The  Japanese  had  themselves  lost  heavily,  but  they 
attended  not  only  to  their  own  maimed  men,  but  also 
to  ours.  Under  night's  pall  of  mercy,  as  our  men 
went  over  the  field,  gathering  up  the  wounded,  they 
found  one  man  who,  by  the  light  of  the  dark  lantern, 
they  saw  was  still  living.  He  was  horribly  mauled 
by  Mauser  balls,  that  had  struck  him  not  only  from 
the  front,  but  even  as  he  was  falling  more  leaden 


THE   AMERICAN    SOLDIERS   IN    CHINA.    327 

missiles  had  torn  lengthwise  through  flesh  and  bone. 
The  man  seemed  unable  to  speak,  and  uttered  no 
word  until  the  surgeon,  having  completed  his  inquest, 
gave  as  his  verdict :  — 

"  It's  no  use  doing  anything  for  him.  Let  him  lie 
quietly.  He'll  soon  be  dead." 

At  this  the  man's  half-shut  eyes  flew  wide  open, 
and  with  what  breath  he  had,  he  called  out :  — 

"  Doctor,  give  me  a  chance." 

"  But,  my  poor  fellow,  you're  hit  in  four  places, 
your  bones  are  shattered,  and  you're  awfully  torn 
outside  and  inside.  You  can't  live." 

"  Doctor,  have  my  knapsack  brought  here." 

The  words  came  out  slowly,  with  labored  breath. 

The  knapsack  was  found  and  brought  after  some 
minutes,  and  opened  for  the  wounded  man.  He  put 
his  hand  on  an  old  pocket-book,  which  seemed  to 
have  been  made  and  done  service  in  his  grand- 
father's day.  Then  very  slowly  fishing  out  a  dirty 
five-dollar  greenback,  he  unfolded  it,  smoothed  it  out 
across  the  pocket-book  laid  flat,  and  with  hardly 
breath  enough  to  utter  a  word,  said  with  defiant 
cheerfulness :  — 

"  Doctor,  I'll  bet  you  five  dollars  I'll  live." 

With  a  hearty  laugh  and  in  warm  admiration  for 
his  pluck,  the  doctor  took  the  case,  knowing  full  well 
that  will  and  courage  are  sometimes  more  than  sur- 
gery or  medicine.  The  expert  with  the  scalpel  and 


328  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

forceps  and  needle  did  what  he  could  with  the  patient 
on  the  field.  He  sawed  him  off,  sewed  him  up, 
trimmed  and  bandaged  him,  and  though  his  was  a 
story  of  a  year  in  hospitals,  the  man  recovered. 
Presented  with  a  new  leg  and  arm  by  the  United 
States  government,  he  still  "  fights  his  battles  o'er  " 
and  illustrates  the  truth  that  "  the  life  is  more  than 
the  meat  and  the  body  more  than  the  raiment." 

We  have  tried  to  brighten  this  dark  page  in  the 
story  of  the  first  engagement  of  American  infantry 
in  China  with  an  anecdote,  showing  that  a  plain  man 
in  the  American  ranks  may  have  the  spirit  of  Law- 
rence, the  hero,  who  cried  in  death,  "  Don't  give  up 
the  ship; "  yet  the  night  of  July  13  closed  in  gloom. 
The  allied  Americans  and  British  were  defeated. 
Wearily  they  lay  down  to  rest  under  the  shelter  of 
the  outer  mud  wall  of  the  city.  Here  they  were  safe 
from  the  fire  of  the  Chinese,  who  occupied  the  forti- 
fied city,  defended  as  it  was  with  brick  and  masonry 
on  which  the  British  artillery  had  made  slight  impres- 
sion, though  the  Chinese  loss  of  life  from  the  liddite 
shells  and  the  Russian  machine  guns  was  frightful. 

Clarence  Burnham  and  Masaro  had  not  yet  met, 
though  both  were  anxious  to  see  each  other.  That 
evening,  as  the  Americans  were  carrying  away  their 
wounded,  before  retiring  behind  the  wall  for  the 
night,  they  halted  where  the  main  road  led  to  the 
south  gate.  Clarence  heard  a  voice. 


THE   AMERICAN   SOLDIERS   IN   CHINA.    329 

"  Hi !  Burnham  San  —  how  are  you  ?  "  It  was 
Masaro's.  Then  followed  congratulations  in  Japan- 
ese, on  his  being  alive. 

"Yes,  my  friend,  I'm  alive  yet;  but  a  few  hours 
ago  I  didn't  expect  to  be.  How  have  you  fared  ? " 

"  Fearfully  cut  up.  We've  lost  about  fifteen  per 
cent  of  our  force  engaged." 

"You're  all  alone.  Where's  your  men?"  asked 
Clarence. 

"  They  are  up  near  the  moat,  lying  under  shelter 
of  graves  and  embankments." 

"  Going  to  stay  there  all  night  ?  "   asked  Clarence. 

"Yes,  comrade.  We  are  going  to  keep  wide 
awake.  It  is  our  business  to  blow  up  the  south 
gate.  You  Americans  and  British  expect  it  of  us, 
and  we  are  going  to  do  it.  Our  engineers  have  sent 
back  for  materials  to  bridge  the  moat,  and  we'll  get 
across  before  morning.  But  I  obtained  only  two 
hours'  leave  of  absence  and  much  over  an  hour  of  it 
is  gone  already.  Besides,  I  am  in  command  of  the 
company.  The  captain  was  killed  this  morning.  So 
farewell,  we  may  meet  again  to-morrow." 

"Possibly,"  said  Clarence.  "Good-by.  'Banzai! 
Banzai ! ' " 

"  Thanks,  comrade.  '  Banzai '  to  the  Great  Repub- 
lic," and  Masaro  saluted  the  furled  and  cased  flag 
of  stars  and  stripes,  as  it  stood  in  the  centre  of  the 
line  of  stacked  rifles. 


330  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

Masaro  hastened  to  return  to  the  very  front  of  the 
firing  line  and  to  a  very  wide-awake  body  of  soldiers. 
Clarence  with  his  weary  fellows  threw  himself  on 
the  ground  to  sleep. 

Let  us  now  look  at  the  little  brown  men  and  see 
what  sort  of  soldiers  they  make. 

History  will  record  the  fact  that  during  the  battle 
summer  of  1900  the  Japanese  in  China  saved  the 
situation.  While  other  nations  could  send  only 
single  regiments  or  various  small,  mixed  bodies 
of  marines  and  infantry,  Japan  promptly  de- 
spatched a  whole  division  of  sixteen  thousand  men, 
including  every  branch  of  the  service,  —  infantry, 
cavalry,  artillery,  engineers,  —  and  with  all  the 
modern  scientific  equipment  of  telegraph  and  signal. 
The  Japanese  were  ever  ahead  on  the  march. 
They  first  scaled  the  walls  of  the  Taku  forts. 
In  the  assignment  of  positions,  during  the  attack 
on  Tientsin,  they  were  joined  with  the  British  and 
Americans. 

Finding  themselves  on  a  narrow  road  passing 
through  the  swamps,  the  Japanese  were  obliged  to 
move  in  columns,  a  formation  which  exposed  them 
to  heavy  loss,  and  also  to  cross  a  bridgeless  stream 
on  their  route.  Naturally,  they  expected  that  the 
bridge  over  the  moat  in  front  of  the  south  gate, 
which  they  were  ordered  to  capture,  would  also  be 
destroyed,  and  that  they  would  be  obliged  to  build  a 


THE   AMERICAN   SOLDIERS   IN   CHINA.    331 

new  one  under  the  fire  of  the  enemy.  With  British 
and  Americans,  they  suffered  a  severe  repulse  on 
the  first  day ;  but  as  an  American  officer  has  written, 
"  After  the  allies  had  re-formed  behind  the  mud  wall 
after  dark,  the  Japanese  were  the  only  troops  with 
any  energy  left." 

Holding  the  ground  already  gained  till  nightfall, 
they  sent  back,  as  we  have  seen,  for  materials  to 
build  the  expected  bridge,  and  this  under  the  con- 
stant firing  of  the  Chinese,  for  the  moonlight  aided 
the  garrison.  When  before  daylight,  about  2  A.M.,  the 
engineers  moved  to  the  edge  of  the  moat,  to  build  a 
bridge,  they  found  that  the  permanent  bridge  stood 
intact ;  so  the  chances  to  blow  up  the  gate  with  high 
explosives  were  good. 

Masaro,  returning  from  his  interview  with  his 
American  friend,  took  his  place  as  commander  of  the 
company  lying  nearest  to  the  engineers,  whose  work 
it  was  to  destroy  the  gate.  In  the  dim  light  he 
watched  their  repeated  attempts  to  blow  up  the  gate. 
Without  artillery  it  seemed  impossible  to  succeed. 
Man  after  man  was  shot  down  as  he  tried  to  cross 
that  zone  of  fire.  Finally  one  party,  in  the  nick  of 
time,  just  after  a  Chinese  volley  and  under  its  very 
smoke,  dashed  across  the  bridge,  despite  the  storm 
of  belated  fire,  and  reached  the  slight  shelter  of  the 
projecting  masonry  of  the  archway.  Placing  two 
hundred  pounds  of  gun  cotton  against  the  heavy 


332  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

timbers,  they  quickly  ran  out  their  electric  coil  and 
exploded  it,  the  timbers  flying  inward. 

Seeing  the  red  fire  of  the  explosion  and  hearing  the 
awful  blast,  Masaro  took  it  as  a  signal  for  assault  and 
called  on  his  men  to  follow  him.  At  once,  not  one 
company,  but  the  whole  battalion  moved  to  charge 
through  the  gate  into  the  city.  In  this  they  were  at 
first  sadly  disappointed.  It  was  "out  of  the  frying 
pan  into  the  fire,"  or,  as  the  Japanese  say,  "  The  bee 
stung  a  crying  face." 

The  gateways  in  Tientsin  were  built  like  those  in 
the  old  castles  of  Japan,  that  is,  on  the  "  box  plan," 
with  two  gates,  one  being  behind  the  other,  with  the 
masonry  extending  along  the  space  between  both. 
The  soldiers  found  themselves  in  a  huddle.  In  the 
space  between  the  walls  and  the  two  gates  were 
packed  scores  of  Japanese,  while  the  Chinese  above 
were  pouring  in  their  bullets  or  showering  down  stones 
and  tiles.  There  was  no  retreat,  for  the  soldiers  in  the 
rear  kept  pushing  forward.  The  situation  seemed  as 
hopeless  as  it  was  horrible. 

At  this  moment  a  sergeant  and  two  soldiers  saved 
the  situation.  Making  their  way  into  the  guard 
tower  beside  the  gate,  they  rushed  up,  charging  upon 
the  Chinese  near  by,  who,  probably  thinking  that  a 
hundred  more  enemies  were  coming,  broke  and  fled. 
One  of  the  three  men  was  shot,  but  the  two  others 
cut  the  bar  of  the  gate,  threw  it  open,  and  then  the 


THE  AMERICAN   SOLDIERS   IN.  CHINA.     333 

Japanese  thronged  in.  They  divided  into  three 
parties,  one  going  up  the  main  street  and  the  other 
two  passing  up  along  the  walls. 

The  awful  bombardment,  especially  by  the  Russian 
and  British  artillery,  and  the  sweeping  of  the  tops  of 
the  walls  by  machine  guns  on  the  I3th  had  begun, 
and  the  night  attack  of  the  Japanese  and  the  explo- 
sion at  the  south  gate  finished,  the  demoralization  of 
the  Chinese.  They  fled  by  the  northern  road,  leav- 
ing ten  thousand  dead  men  on  the  walls  and  in  the 
streets. 

As  usual,  the  Japanese  were  ahead.  Heaven's 
Ford  had  been  crossed.  Now  for  the  dragon  throne  ! 
The  Japanese  bugles  played  "  On  to  Peking." 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

TO   THE    RESCUE    OF    THE    LEGATIONS. 

DURING  the  twenty-two  days  that  the  allied 
army  remained  at  Tientsin,  Clarence  Burn- 
ham  and  his  friend  Masaro  saw  a  great  deal 
of  each  other. 

The  world  at  a  distance  wondered  why  the  great 
host  gathered  by  eight  nations  did  not  make  greater 
speed  and  hasten  to  the  relief  of  the  beleaguered 
legations,  —  so  much  easier  is  it  from  afar  to  find 
fault  than  on  the  spot  to  make  haste  wisely.  "  Wings 
for  the  azure.  Boots  for  the  road." 

In  the  first  place,  the  whole  situation  was  altered. 
Before  the  attack  by  the  foreigners  upon  the  Taku 
forts,  the  country  was  disturbed  by  a  mob  only. 
When  Admiral  Seymour  advanced  with  his  ill-pre- 
pared but  noble  band  of  two  thousand  rescuers,  it 
was  at  first  difficult  to  find  any  natives  with  arms 
in  their  hands.  The  only  opposition  was  from  the 
Boxers,  who  were  also  "  snipers." 

After  the  foreign  powers,  with  the  exception  of  the 
United  States  represented  by  the  American  admiral, 

334 


TO  THE   RESCUE   OF  THE   LEGATIONS.    335 

had  made  war  on  the  government  of  China,  by  overt 
attack,  the  situation  changed  instantly.  The  country 
from  that  moment  swarmed  with  armed  Chinese,  for 
now  the  Peking  government  had  let  loose  its  whole 
army  upon  the  invaders.  Admiral  Seymour  was  com- 
pelled to  turn  back.  Hoping  to  be  able  to  reach 
Tientsin  with  his  wounded,  he  halted  at  a  place 
called  Siku,  a  few  miles  above  Tientsin,  and  there 
captured  the  arsenal.  With  its  arms  and  stores,  he 
was  enabled  to  hold  out  until  the  second  relief  force 
reached  him  on  the  2ist  of  June,  when  all  returned 
to  Tientsin,  our  American  loss  being  four  killed  and 
twenty-seven  wounded. 

Now  that  the  walled  city  of  Heaven's  Ford  had 
been  taken  and  occupied  by  the  Americans,  English, 
French,  and  Japanese,  the  larger  Chinese  city  out- 
side having  been  already  burned  by  the  allies,  the 
sight  presented  was  one  of  the  most  awful  seen  in 
modern  times.  In  the  streets,  on  the  walls,  on  the 
battlefield,  the  dead  were  lying  in  heaps.  Not  to 
count  those  that  were  wounded,  at  least  ten  thousand 
Chinese  had  been  killed.  The  allies  lost  nearly  two 
thousand  in  casualties  of  all  sorts.  The  blackened 
and  deserted  streets  were  choked  with  rubbish  from 
houses  demolished  by  exploding  shells.  From  a 
grand  city  of  a  million  people,  Tientsin  had  become 
a  heap  of  ruins. 

Yet  we    do  not   hear  of   the  Christian  people  of 


336  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

America  giving  the  American  admiral  a  reception 
such  as  they  would  give  a  fighter  who  fought  without 
regard  to  scruples.  Yet,  what  officer  of  the  United 
States  navy  thus  representing  his  country  abroad 
better  embodied  the  noblest  traditions  of  American 
principle  and  policy  and  the  teachings  of  Washington 
than  our  Admiral  ? 

As  though  the  slaughter  and  destruction  of  Tien- 
tsin were  not  enough,  the  city  was  given  up  on  the 
1 4th  of  July  to  loot.  The  men  of  Christendom,  re- 
verting to  savagery,  shamelessly  robbed  houses  and 
people,  until  "the  Spanish  fury  "  in  Antwerp,  of  which 
we  have  so  often  read,  paled  in  its  horrors. 

Happily,  however,  this  lasted  but  a  day.  Then  the 
city  was  patrolled,  and  the  people  were  invited  to 
return  to  their  homes  and  assured  of  protection. 

"It's  worse  than  Ping  Yang,"  said  Masaro  to 
Clarence  Burnham,  as  they  were  walking  together, 
some  days  after  the  dead  had  all  been  buried  and 
the  provost  guard  had  brought  order  to  the  place. 
"  Now,  tell  me  frankly,  which  are  the  worse  heathen, 
we  Japanese  or  you  foreigners  ? " 

"I  am  afraid  we  are  all  'tarred  with  the  same 
brush '  this  time,  for  such  thievery  I  have  never 
seen,  nor  could  I  easily  have  imagined  it  —  but  what's 
this  ? " 

They  saw  two  Chinese  coming  forward,  one  with 
a  rudely  painted  representation  of  the  stars  and 


TO  THE   RESCUE   OF  THE   LEGATIONS.    337 

stripes,  and  the  other  with  one  of  the  red  sun  and 
outraying  bands  of  the  same  color,  representing  the 
flag  of  Japan. 

Both  Chinamen  fell  on  their  knees  down  in  the 
mud,  put  their  heads  to  the  ground,  each  waving 
his  flag  with  his  right  hand. 

This  was  but  one  of  a  thousand  instances.  Mak- 
ing flags  of  whatever  nation  had  won  the  most  con- 
fidence, the  Tientsinese  folk  were  returning.  Each 
must  find  his  house,  or  what  had  been  his  house,  and 
begin  life  over  again. 

By  this  time  the  two  young  officers  had  walked 
some  distance  out  from  the  walled  city,  and  even 
beyond  the  outer  low  mud  wall,  when  the  conver- 
sation turned  on  what  was  uppermost  in  their  minds. 
It  was  just  eleven  days  after  the  capture  of  Tientsin. 

"  When  were  the  '  legationers  '  in  Peking  heard 
from  last  ?  "  asked  Masaro. 

"  Nothing  has  come  through,  I  understand,  since 
the  day  before  the  Fourth  of  July,  when  the  Boxers 
were  still  bombarding  the  legations.  You  know  that 
I  have  sent  a  messenger  since  coming  here,  —  indeed, 
right  after  the  taking  of  Tientsin." 

Masaro  grasped  the  hand  of  his  friend  warmly  and 
said  :  "  Yes,  I  know.  May  it  get  there  and  we  follow 
it.  I  hope  she  is  safe.  I  wish  we  could  start  to- 
morrow." 

"And  I,  too,"  said  Clarence;  "but  think  of  moving 


OF  THE 


338  IN  THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

thirty  thousand  men  in  this  flat  country  of  mud  and 
swamp,  without  decent  drinking  water,  and  taking 
every  ration  with  us.  It  may  be  that  perhaps,  after 
all,  we  may  arrive  to  find  the  ministers  taken  away 
as  hostages  into  the  far  interior,  and  all  the  other 
foreigners  and  native  Christians  massacred.  But 
look!  here  comes  a  Chinaman  that  is  moving  too 
fast  for  a  returning  refugee.  Why,  he  fairly 
whizzes.  He  can't  be  pursued,  for  he  is  within 
our  picket  lines." 

It  was  indeed  true.  A  messenger  had  got  through, 
bringing  word  from  the  ministers  that  they  were 
still  living  and  all  in  good  health,  but  that  food  and 
ammunition  were  getting  low.  They  might  be  able 
to  hold  out  a  few  days  longer.  Happily  a  truce  of 
ten  days  had  been  agreed  upon. 

Inspirited  by  this  good  news,  preparations  were 
hurried,  and  on  August  4  the  relief  expedition 
started,  marching  on  both  sides  of  the  Peiho  River. 
Through  the  vast  fields  of  millet  and  the  thousands 
of  grave  mounds,  footmen,  cavalry,  pack  animals, 
and  vehicles  moved,  grinding  the  soil  and  sending  up 
clouds  of  impalpable  dust.  There  were  fourteen 
thousand  Japanese,  six  thousand  Russians,  two  thou- 
sand British,  twenty-two  hundred  Americans,  and 
about  three  thousand  French,  Germans,  and  Italians, 
to  pulverize  the  earth  and  lift  it  into  the  air.  A 
more  monotonous  country,  without  one  landmark  to 


TO  THE   RESCUE   OF  THE   LEGATIONS.    339 

vary  the  flatness,  could  hardly  be  conceived.  The 
movement  of  this  allied  army  during  these  terribly 
hot  days,  along  that  slimy  sewer  called  the  Peiho 
River,  was  more  like  that  of  a  crawling  serpent  than 
of  a  marching  host. 

There  was  heavy  fighting  at  Pietsang  and  again  at 
Yang-tsun.  The  allies  won,  but  our  men  lost  heavily. 
It  was  no  picnic  promenade — this  walk  to  Peking. 

No  Valley  Forge  camp  or  Gettysburg  campaign 
ever  tried  more  severely  the  spirits  or  tested  the 
endurance  of  the  American  soldier.  Amid  swarms 
of  mosquitoes  and  the  horrible  malaria,  the  men 
pushed  on  through  an  area  of  desolation.  Instead  of 
the  usual  population  of  many  millions,  it  was  rare  to 
see  any  one  but  those  attached  to  the  army,  except 
of  course  the  hags  and  crones,  —  the  old  men  too 
decrepit  to  move,  —  the  cripples,  and  the  abandoned 
children. 

On  they  marched  through  the  terrible  heat,  through 
the  yellow  clouds  of  dust  and  the  black  clouds  of  flies 
and  mosquitoes,  through  the  millet  stalks,  ten  and 
twelve  feet  high,  even  while  their  feet  sank  inches 
deep  into  a  fine  yellow  powder,  which  the  tramp- 
ing of  tens  of  thousands  of  men  and  the  rolling  of 
thousands  of  wheels  had  ground  fine.  It  was  im- 
possible for  the  army  to  move  faster  than  eight  miles 
a  day. 

Yet  in  this  terrible  trial  of  human  nature,  for  in 


340  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

war  that  article  is  at  its  best  and  worst,  the  Japanese 
had  their  opportunity  of  showing  what  kind  of  people 
they  are. 

"  I  congratulate  you,  Masaro,  that  Japan's  oppor- 
tunity has  at  last  come,"  said  Clarence  Burnham  to 
Masaro,  when  they  met  within  two  days'  march,  as 
they  believed,  of  Peking.  "  In  1894-1895,  the  world 
could  only  hear  of  what  was  done,  and  see  the  results, 
and  the  foreign  correspondents  were  on  the  ground 
only  when  your  countrymen  were  at  their  worst  and 
fell  from  discipline  at  Wei-Hai-Wei.  But  now  here 
are  many  nations  as  witnesses.  Why,  just  see  how 
your  fellows  beat  ours  in  marching." 

"  You  are  not  surprised  at  it,  are  you  ?  You  that 
have  tramped  with  your  Japanese  companions  hun- 
dreds of  miles  in  Japan,  over  mountains  and  through 
valleys." 

"  No,  but  our  American  officers  do  not  know  what 
to  make  of  it,  when  they  see  your  little  short-legged 
fellows  go  ahead  of  ours,  while  we  that  have  so  prided 
ourselves  on  our  muscle  can't  keep  up." 

"  Oh  !  but,"  said  Masaro,  "  look  at  our  men.  They 
carry  only  their  rifles,  ammunition,  and  drinking  water, 
but  just  look  at  those  American  soldiers  there  stag- 
gering along  with  forty  pounds  and  more  of  knapsack 
and  blanket." 

"  Yes,  that's  the  way.  Our  men's  loads  and  our 
wagons  are  about  the  same  as  in  the  days  of  the 


TO   THE   RESCUE   OF  THE   LEGATIONS.    341 

Continentals,  a  century  and  more  ago,  while  every- 
thing with  you  is  light  and  easy." 

"Yes,  but  our  real  pride  is  in  our  field-hospitals 
and  medical  staff,  as  well  as  our  commissariat  and 
army  transport.  We  employ  more  laborers.  All 
our  supplies  are  done  up  in  easy  packages,  well  cov- 
ered and  with  handles,  so  that  on  man,  beast,  or 
wheel  they  can  be  easily  carried." 

"  Yes,  that's  where  your  Japanese  are  reaping  the 
harvest  of  hundreds  of  years  of  skill  and  taste  in 
making  pretty  boxes,  bamboo  and  grass  work,  and 
every  kind  of  receptacle.  So,  when  it  comes  to  war, 
you  are  all  ready  either  to  fight  or  to  march." 

"  Thanks  for  your  compliments,  and  forgive  me  if 
I  boast,  but  then,  you  know,  we  Japanese  have  been 
for  years  determined  to  let  you  Westerners  know  that 
we  have  a  civilization  of  our  own,  that  we  are  not  as 
Chinese  —  rather  are  we  what  we  are,  in  spite  of  what 
we  have  borrowed  from  China.  I  tell  you  frankly 
that  we  are  going  to  be  in  Peking  ahead  of  all  others, 
if  we  can.  The  first  official  bloodshed  was  when 
the  chancellor  of  our  legation  was  assassinated,  and 
we  feel  bound  to  be  ahead  of  our  allies  and  helpers." 

"  I  suppose  your  general  has  his  dinner  appointed 
for  a  particular  day,  hour,  and  minute  in  the  throne 
room  of  the  palace  at  Peking  ?  " 

"Well,  I  won't  speak  as  to  minutes,  but  I  have 
heard  him  say  that  he  will  be  in  Peking  on  the  1 5th 


342  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

of  August,  and  he  is  likely  to  keep  his  word.  May  I 
boast  a  little  more  ?  " 

"  Certainly,  I  like  to  hear  it." 

"  Well,  I  honestly  believe  that  if  we  Japanese  were 
allowed  to  take  this  contract  alone,  we  should  be  in 
Peking  several  days  ahead  even  of  you  Americans, 
or  of  any  and  all  of  the  Europeans." 

There  was  no  real  boasting  in  this  talk  of  Masaro. 
The  Japanese  knew  every  inch  of  the  ground.  Their 
officers  had  the  only  complete  and  correct  military 
maps  of  the  line  of  march  and  the  theatre  of  war. 
The  Japanese  soldiers  were  the  only  ones  that  had 
always  plenty  of  good  drinking  water,  for  their  field 
filters  went  with  them,  and  at  the  end  of  the  day 
they  were  the  freshest  lot  of  men  in  the  whole  host. 
Their  field-telegraph  was  the  only  one  that  was  first 
mounted  and  kept  open  all  the  time,  and  in  the  hard 
fighting  at  Pietsang  and  at  Yang-tsun,  as  at  Tientsin, 
the  Japanese  field-hospital  corps  attended  to  their 
wounded  more  promptly  and  perfectly  than  any  other, 
and  even  then  they  had  time  and  resources  to  help 
the  British  and  Americans.  In  the  matter  of  ammu- 
nition supply  on  the  firing  line,  none  excelled  them. 
It  is  true  that  the  Japanese  ration  was  much  smaller 
than  that  of  the  Americans,  but  then  the  Japanese 
thrived  as  well  on  the  march,  always  had  good  water 
to  drink,  and  lay  down  at  night  under  a  good  tent  or 
in  the  village  houses.  Too  often  the  tired  American 


TO  THE   RESCUE   OF  THE   LEGATIONS.    343 

soldier,  at  the  end  of  the  day,  had  to  weary  himself 
to  find  water.  Failing  of  supply  from  wells  or  cis- 
terns, he  drank  disease  and  death  out  of  the  Peiho 
River. 

Thus  the  "  ten  days,"  within  which  Clarence  Burn- 
ham  hoped  .to  be  within  sight  of  the  walls  of  Peking, 
dragged  out  their  horrors  into  thrice  that  number. 

Let  us  now  glance  within  the  citadel  of  civilization 
amid  the  iron  storm  of  barbarism. 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

THE    RELIEF    OF   THE   LEGATIONS. 

AUGUST  had  come  in  Peking,  but  all  signs  of 
relief  were  failing.  Yet  the  besieged  were 
encouraged  by  reports  of  dissensions  between 
the  Manchu  army  and  the  Boxers. 

On  the  7th  the  Japanese  celebrated  their  beautiful 
festival  of  Uruban,  or  All  Souls'  Day,  holding  the 
usual  ceremonies  of  commemoration.  Eight  new 
graves  marked  the  resting-place  of  their  compatriots, 
and  on  them  the  green  grass  was  already  growing. 
Having  no  fresh  blossoms  or  pretty  vases,  as  at  home, 
artificial  flowers  stuck  in  empty  beer  bottles  were 
placed  before  the  mounds,  as  tributes  of  affection. 

A  day  or  two  afterward,  the  Chinese  Christians, 
listening  to  the  commotion  among  the  besiegers  near 
one  of  the  princely  residences  outside,  declared  that 
the  cries  of  the  new  recruits  which  had  arrived 
betrayed  their  Shansi  origin.  In  this  province,  fifty 
missionaries  had  been  slain.  Other  messengers  from 
the  rescuing  army  arrived.  One  from  the  famous 
Japanese  rough-rider,  General  Fukushima,  gave  new 

344 


THE   RELIEF   OF   THE   LEGATIONS.        345 

courage  to  the  besieged  by  stating  that  the  allies,  two 
days  before,  had  reached  a  point  nearly  halfway 
between  Tientsin  and  Peking. 

On  August  8,  during  the  thunder-storm  at  night, 
the  Chinese  fusillade  broke  out  again  in  all  directions. 
Rifles  and  -machine-guns  rained  lead.  Yet,  despite 
the  double  noise  of  heaven  and  earth,  the  merry  Jap- 
anese talked  of  getting  up  a  Peking  Defence  Medal. 
Of  all  the  besieged,  they  seemed  to  feel  the  most 
certain  that  their  general  would  be  on  hand  on  the 
day  appointed.  Nor  were  they  finally  mistaken.  On 
the  next  day,  however,  the  nth,  the  spirits  of  the 
unrescued  fell  again,  and  the  hope  of  hearing  the  dis- 
tant roar  of  artillery  was  doomed  to  disappointment. 

It  was  now  feared  that  the  Chinese  would  make  a 
final  and  determined  attack  on  the  legations,  because 
they  were  warned  of  the  approach  of  the  relief  expe- 
dition. This  expectation  was  correct.  From  5  P.M. 
until  daybreak  of  the  I2th,  there  was  no  cessation  in 
the  storm  of  bullet  and  cannon  shots.  So,  like  the 
waves  of  ocean,  rose  and  fell  the  spirits  of  those  shut 
in  and  girdled  with  fire. 

The  next  day,  about  eleven  o'clock,  there  were 
unmistakable  sounds  of  artillery  in  the  southeast. 
The  firing  was  different  from  that  which  had  been 
heard  for  weeks,  and  Marian's  trained  ear  knew  that 
the  rescuers  must  be  near.  The  Manchus  knew  it 
also,  for  at  ten  o'clock  at  night  the  storm  of  missiles 


346  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

increased,  while  another  thunder-storm  added  to  the 
roar.  To  show  their  defiance,  our  people  blew  their 
bugles  and  raised  their  war  cries.  When  the  firing 
ceased,  they  doubled  their  sentries  until  daylight,  for 
they  feared  a  rush  with  ladders.  Indeed,  it  was  quite 
possible  that  massacre  might  end  the  siege  before 
relief  came. 

It  was  heavenly  music  that  Marian  heard  next  day 
at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  rattle  of  the 
field-guns  and  gatlings  was  as  though  heaven  had 
been  opened  and  the  strains  of  its  music  had  come 
down  to  earth. 

There  were  many  hours  of  fighting,  but  chiefly  by 
artillery.  At  eight  o'clock,  from  another  direction, 
sounded  the  chorus  of  American  cannon.  Soon  the 
rumor  spread  that  at  daybreak  two  hundred  foreign 
troops  had  got  within  the  wall  by  way  of  the  eastern 
gate.  Those  who  watched  on  the  wall  strained  their 
gaze.  Marian  hoped  they  would  catch  sight  of  the 
stars  and  stripes  and  our  men  of  the  Ninth ;  but  no, 
they  saw  a  column  of  dark-faced  men  dressed  in 
kakhi.  It  was  the  Sikh  lancers.  They  had  crept 
under  the  water  gate  and  emerged  in  the  dried-up  bed 
of  the  creek,  and  to  them  belongs  the  honor  of  first 
opening  communication  between  the  legations  and 
the  allies. 

So  at  last  the  rescue  was  definitely  accomplished, 
and  on  this  wise.  The  Russians  with  a  mighty  force 


THE   RELIEF   OF  THE   LEGATIONS.        34? 

cleaned  the  walls  with  machine-guns.  The  Japanese 
with  fifty-four  cannon  demolished  the  gates.  About 
eight  or  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  two  companies 
of  our  Fourteenth  Regiment  climbed  up  the  old  and 
worn  wall,  now  full  of  holes  made  by  ends  of  brick 
falling  out.  On  the  top  they  unfurled  "  Old  Glory  " 
at  the  same  time  that  the  Russian  colors  were  hoisted 
on  the  Tung  Pien  gate.  About  noon,  through  this 
gate,  the  Ninth  and  Fourteenth  marched  into  the 
Chinese  city.  Captain  Reilly's  battery  cleared  the 
walls  of  snipers.  The  men  rested  from  the  intense 
heat  and  vertical  sunshine,  under  the  shade  of  the 
deserted  houses. 

But  where  was  General  Chaffee  ?  Why  were  not 
the  Americans  improving  their  chance  of  being  first 
into  the  Tartar  City?  Nobody  could  tell.  There, 
for  two  mortal,  maddening  hours,  Clarence  Burnham 
waited.  Finally  the  word  came  to  move.  The  Sikhs 
crawled  through  the  muddy  sluice  canal,  receiving 
the  first  cosmopolitan  welcome.  At  last  our  men, 
entering  by  the  same  humble  opening,  were  within 
the  dragon's  lair  —  the  Tartar  City  —  and  soon 
within  the  grounds  of  the  British  Legation. 

What  a  contrast !  The  rescuers  were  dusty,  tired, 
unwashed,  unshorn.  With  a  rolled  blanket  over  his 
shoulder,  a  belt  of  cartridges  at  his  waist,  grim,  deter- 
mined, intelligent,  with  a  never-say-die  look,  every 
inch  a  man  —  such  was  the  American  soldier. 


348  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

It  did  seem  strange  to  see  most  of  the  rescued  as 
they  really  were.  From  the  outside  the  picture  in 
our  men's  minds  was  of  sunken  eyes  and  shrunken 
flesh,  of  famine-stricken  and  scant-clothed  people 
long  besieged.  Instead  of  this  they  beheld  plump, 
rosy  women,  dressed  in  smart  waists  and  gowns,  and 
men  in  white  clothes.  Yet  why  not  ?  They  had  had 
enough  to  eat,  including  plenty  of  pony  steak,  and  as 
for  clothes,  they  had  nothing  else  but  what  was  neat 
and  clean.  Like  true  Americans,  they  couldn't  tell 
a  lie,  by  shamming  dirt  and  hunger,  when  there  was 
no  need. 

"Why  don't  they  eat  cake?"  was  the  traditional 
Bourbon  queen's  reply  to  the  complaint  that  the 
French  peasants  "had  no  bread." 

So  here  there  appeared  at  first  some  incongruity, 
but  not  long.  Within  a  half-hour  it  seemed  as  if  the 
days  of  the  Volunteer  Refreshment  Saloon  of  Phila- 
delphia and  '6 1  had  come  again.  Cups  of  hot  tea 
and  "  tinned "  biscuits  or  thin  slices  of  buttered  or 
jam-covered  bread  seemed  very  delicious  to  our  men 
amid  the  interchange  of  congratulations. 

For  Clarence  Burnham  and  Marian  Hopewell, 
there  was  a  richer  feast  spread.  Dr.  Clinton  and 
Mrs.  Dray  ton  had  arranged  that. 

To  meet,  for  even  one  moment,  apart  from  the  pub- 
lic gaze,  the  one  woman  on  earth  whom  he  loved, 
had  been  Clarence  Burnham's  hope  for  years.  Hers 


THE   RELIEF   OF  THE   LEGATIONS.       349 

was  to  see  the  man  who  to  faithful  devotion  united 
loyalty  in  keeping  the  seals  of  silence  for  the  ap- 
pointed time.  This  had  long  sustained  her  in  lone- 
liness and  drudgery.  Now  that  he  had  added  to  his 
unswerving  love  unquailing  valor,  and  stood  before 
her  as  rescuer  from  horrible  death,  what  could  she 
do,  rather  what  be  to  him  ? 

"  A  half-hour  is  certainly  yours,"  said  Dr.  Clinton, 
as  he  shut  the  door  of  the  chapel  on  them.  "  Both 
military  and  civil  authority  join  to  say  so,  and  the 
music  teacher  will  guard  the  outside  of  the  door  to 
warn  off  intruders,"  said  he,  with  a  knowing  twinkle. 

The  door  closed.  In  an  instant  the  young  officer 
was  on  his  knees  before  Marian. 

"  No,  you  must  rise.  I  am  the  one  to  kneel  to  my 
rescuer." 

He  rose,  but  even  had  she  so  much  as  tried  to  bow 
head  or  form,  she  was  not  allowed.  One  long,  pas- 
sionate embrace  held  her,  and  kisses  in  showers  fell 
upon  lip  and  brow  and  cheeks. 

How  quickly  that  half,  yes,  that  full  hour  sped. 
Every  one  was  too  busy  outdoors  to  heed  the  lovers 
within.  At  last  the  bugle  sounded,  and  the  men  of 
the  Ninth  must  fall  in  to  seek  quarters  for  the  night. 
Yet,  before  joining  his  company,  Clarence  heard  from 
Marian's  lips  these  words  :  — 

"  Yes,  it  shall  be  whenever  and  wherever  you  wish 
it." 


350  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

"  Here  and  now,  in  Peking  ? "  asked  he,  in  beaming 
joy. 

"  Yes,  my  brave.     Name  place  and  time." 

"  I  do.  In  the  central  hall  of  the  imperial  pal- 
ace in  the  Purple  City,  standing  before  the  dragon 
throne,  let  us  be  made  one." 

"  I  am  ready.  I  want  one  friend  to  stand  with  me, 
the  music  teacher.  Being  the  lady  in  the  case,  I 
claim,  of  course,  the  privilege  of  nominating  the  par- 
son." 

"  Who  is  he  ?  "  asked  the  happy  Clarence. 

"  Dr.  Clinton." 

"  I  agree,  of  course ;  but  let  me  name  my  '  best 
man.' ' 

"  Certainly,  and  who  is  he  ? " 

"  Masaro,  friend  and  comrade." 

Clarence  Burnham  would  have  been  only  too  happy 
to  appoint  the  wedding  for  the  next  day,  had  it  been 
possible,  but  it  was  not.  Indeed,  there  were  a  good 
many  thousands  of  disappointed  soldiers  who,  during 
two  whole  weeks,  wondered  why  the  third  and  fourth 
of  that  nest  of  cities,  Chinese,  Tartar,  Imperial,  and 
Purple,  which  make  up  Peking,  was  not  immediately 
opened.  All  through  the  march,  when  toiling  under 
their  hardships,  fighting  enemies  and  infuriated  by 
tales  of  unspeakable  tortures  of  their  countrymen,  they 
had  thought  of  this  as  the  crowning  victory  of  civili- 
zation over  Chinese  bigotry. 


THE   RELIEF   OF  THE   LEGATIONS.       351 

First  loot  and  then  fire  was  their  idea  of  the  eter- 
nal fitness  of  things.  In  red  flame  and  black  smoke, 
they  hoped  to  see  the  imperial  palace  furnish  the 
finest  display  of  Chinese  fireworks  ever  seen.  Where 
had  been  the  birth  of  treachery,  they  hoped  to  see  its 
tomb.  Already  at  Peking  the  American  artillery 
had  begun  to  make  short  work  of  the  first  three  gates 
of  the  Purple  City,  when  they  were  ordered  to  cease 
firing  and  march  away.  Having  lost  so  many  of 
their  comrades,  including  Colonel  Liscum  and  Cap- 
tain Reilly,  this  order  was  hard  indeed  to  obey. 

At  such  a  time  delay  only  nursed  superstition  and 
encouraged  the  Manchus.  It  was  bruited  abroad 
that  the  "  foreign  devils  "  could  not  enter  the  sacred 
precincts  of  the  Forbidden  City.  The  allied  generals 
found  that  they  must  give  the  Manchu  dynasty  and 
all  China  an  object  lesson  of  the  power  of  the  West. 
So  an  international  procession  was  organized.  Each 
of  the  Powers,  eight  in  number,  was  to  be  allowed  a 
small  detachment,  in  proportion  to  the  numbers  of 
troops  sent,  to  march  through  the  chief  or  Chen-ou 
gate,  over  the  marble  courtyards,  and  around  and 
past  the  chief  buildings,  audience  halls,  and  palace 
grounds. 

On  the  day  appointed,  at  eight  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  the  Russian,  Japanese,  British,  American, 
French,  German,  Italian,  and  Austrian  detachments 
paraded  before  General  Linievitch,  the  Czar's  mili- 


352  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

tary  representative  being  the  reviewing  officer.  It 
was  hard  for  those  soldiers  who  were  not  allowed 
to  enter  on  that  day  to  stay  behind,  and  happy 
indeed  were  those  who  had  the  grand  privilege. 

After  the  marching  into  and  through  the  massive 
gates  and  spacious  grounds  had  been  accomplished, 
and  the  head  of  the  column  had  reached  the  North- 
ern court  of  the  palace,  the  impressive  ceremonies 
began.  The  Russian  general  and  his  staff,  and  the 
ministers  of  the  various  legations  with  ladies,  stood 
under  the  northern  gate,  the  Russian  band  being 
in  the  courtyard,  while  the  Cossacks  and  Russian 
infantry  were  ranged  as  a  reception  committee 
round  the  wall  of  the  court.  Then  the  notes  of  the 
sublime  Russian  national  anthem  rolled  out,  and  in 
marched  the  first  contingent,  the  Russian  marines 
and  infantry. 

Next  followed  the  Japanese,  under  their  black  caps 
with  yellow  stripes  and  in  white  uniform.  They 
were  splendidly  equipped,  marching  slowly  and  with 
proud  dignity.  None  in  all  that  international  host 
could  so  appreciate  the  significance  of  the  occasion 
—  the  entrance  into  the  lair  of  the  dragon  —  as  these 
soldiers  of  the  Mikado.  When  Baron  Yamaguchi  and 
General  Fukushima  reached  the  Russian  general, 
they  took  their  places  next  to  him.  The  Russian 
band  could  not  play  the  Japanese  national  air,  or, 
what  the  islanders  would  gladly  have  heard,  "  On  to 


THE   RELIEF   OF  THE   LEGATIONS.        353 

Peking,"  but  the  Russian  soldiers  cheered  themselves 
hoarse  until  the  last  of  the  little  brown  men  passed  by. 

Next  appeared  the  British,  —  including  the  Welsh 
fusileers  who  had  fought  so  splendidly  at  Tientsin,  — 
the  best-dressed  men  of  the  host,  with  the  dark-faced 
auxiliaries  from  India,  the  Russian  band  playing 
"God  Save  the  Queen."  Beside  the  Bengal  lancers, 
whose  coal-black  eyes  snapped  with  joy,  and  whose 
bag-pipers  played  like  Highlanders,  was  the  Chinese 
regiment  from  Wei-Hai-Wei,  probably  not  more  glad 
to  fight  with  ball  and  bayonet  against  their  Manchu 
rulers  than  were  the  progressive  Chinese  reformers 
who,  with  the  pen  and  in  print,  had  so  long  de- 
nounced the  "tigers  in  Peking." 

Next  from  the  Russian  lungs  sounded  the  stirring 
strains  of  "  The  Star-Spangled  Banner,"  and  first 
in  the  great  gate  itself,  and  then  emerging  from 
shadow  into  sunshine,  appeared  its  starry  folds.  In 
marched  our  brave  fellows  selected  from  the  Ninth 
and  Fourteenth  regiments.  How  exultantly  did  Clar- 
ence Burnham's  heart  beat  as  the  Russians  raised 
their  cheers,  and  he  looked  for  the  first  time  upon  the 
gay  and  grotesque  structures,  —  the  brilliant  yellow 
and  green  roofs,  pagodas,  Ming,  Mongol,  and  Man- 
chu, and  upon  the  stone  and  marble  basements  and 
the  red  lacquered  wooden  structures  rising  above 
them.  His  eyes  dwelt  with  special  interest  upon 
the  building  which  contained  the  throne  room.  There 


354  IN   THE   MIKADO'S  SERVICE. 

was  the  lair  of  the  dragon,  which  for  five  centuries 
had  barred  the  way  to  the  influences  of  civilization. 

After  the  easy-going  Americans,  with  their  natu- 
ral and  sensible  gait,  each  man  an  individual  thinking 
force,  strode  the  Germans.  Fine-looking,  tall,  heavy, 
they  advanced  with  their  extraordinary  and  very  noisy 
"  parade  march."  After  a  long  swinging  step,  each 
foot  came  down  on  the  ground  like  a  hammer.  They 
seemed  to  make  one  machine  rather  than  a  company 
of  thinking  beings.  Despite  their  fine  equipment 
and  excellent  drill,  their  foot  motions  caused  a  quiet 
laugh,  which  soon  gave  way  to  cheers. 

With  so  many  nations,  it  was  hard  not  to  make 
some  mistake.  The  French,  few  in  number,  followed 
the  Germans,  and  had  already  passed  the  Russian 
band  before  "  The  Marseillaise  "  was  in  full  swing. 
But  while  this  is  the  national  air  of  republican 
France,  the  music  is  under  ban  in  Italy.  The 
musicians'  lungs  being  at  their  fullest,  when  the 
Italians  came  in,  the  Russian  general  signalled  for 
the  bandmaster  to  stop.  This  worthy  not  seeing,  the 
general  sent  his  aide,  and  suddenly  silence  fell.  The 
bandsmen  quickly  adjusted  their  sheet  music,  how- 
ever, so  that  the  neat  Italian  sailors  heard  their  own 
national  air.  The  Austrian  marines  who  followed 
next  closed  the  procession. 

Thus  were  the  Tartars  humbled  in  their  own  walls, 
and  Manchu  China  punished  for  her  reversion  to 


THE   RELIEF   OF  THE   LEGATIONS.        355 

savagery.  Instead  of  the  eight  banners  of  the  old 
Peking  garrison,  the  flags  of  eight  nations,  banded  to 
protect  their  people,  floated  on  the  breeze. 

The  great  metropolis  had  already  been  given  up 
to  the  various  conquerors.  The  Japanese  occupied 
the  northern  half,  and  the  Russians,  the  central, 
erecting  their  batteries  even  in  the  imperial  gardens. 
The  looting  of  the  city  went  on  for  weeks.  The  Jap- 
anese, knowing  the  exact  points  to  seize  upon,  won 
the  lion's  share.  Though  the  soldiers  of  nine  na- 
tions took  part  in  this  license  of  war,  the  worst  out- 
rages were  charged  to  the  Chinese  soldiery  from 
Wei-Hai-Wei.  It  would  be  too  much  to  expect  all 
men  fighting  under  Britain's  flag  to  show  British 
self-restraint. 

Nor  was  all  the  courage  shown  by  armed  men, 
rescuers  or  rescued.  Valor  behind  the  gun  is  en- 
trancing, but  boldness  without  weapons  may  be  even 
more  lovely.  Almost  before  the  smoke  had  cleared 
away,  the  unarmed  missionary  was  out  of  the  city 
and  in  the  villages  providing  for  the  poor  and  needy 
of  his  flock.  Despite  unintelligent,  ignorant,  and 
cowardly  criticism,  and  hasty  misunderstanding  of 
this  course  of  action  at  home,  our  countrymen,  who 
carried  neither  sword  nor  gun,  equally  with  our  cav- 
alry, infantry,  artillery,  marines,  and  sailors,  upheld 
the  honor  of  the  flag  and  adorned  the  American 
name  in  China. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

A  MARRIAGE  BEFORE  THE  DRAGON  THRONE. 

THE  world  knows  well  the  story  of  the  rescue 
of  the  legations  of  Christendom  in  Peking  in 
1900;  but  what  in  the  eyes  of  our  readers 
may  be  all  these  facts  known  to  history  compared 
with  the  main  incident  of  our  story  ?  On  a  certain 
day  it  was  permitted  to  the  newspaper  correspond- 
ents to  enter  with  their  note-books  and  cameras  the 
Throne  Hall  of  the  proudest  dynasty  on  earth.  The 
sunny  hours,  from  ten  till  two,  were  appointed  for  the 
privilege  of  visiting  the  lair  of  the  dragon. 

"  This  is  our  opportunity,"  said  Clarence  Burnham, 
as  he  came  to  tell  Marian  two  evenings  previously, 
and  informed  her  that,  in  the  capacity  of  war  corre- 
spondents, they  might  both  be  admitted  by  getting  a 
pass  from  the  commanding  general,  which  was  duly 
obtained.  Dr.  Clinton  and  the  music  teacher,  both 
occasional  writers  for  the  press  at  home,  joined  in  the 
application.  Of  course  Masaro,  the  veteran,  followed 
suit. 

It  was  a  glorious  morning  in  September,  and  the 
356 


MARRIAGE  BEFORE  THE  DRAGON  THRONE.  357 

air  was  crisp  and  clear.  The  sunshine  flooded  the 
yellow  tiles,  made  the  green  roofs  glitter,  and  bright- 
ened up  even  the  dull  red  of  the  miscellaneous  build- 
ings in  the  purple  city.  The  garish  daylight  exposed 
the  realities  of  China  even  amidst  its  greatest  splen- 
dor, for  along  with  edifices  that  were  shining,  almost 
staring  new,  were  others  long  out  of  repair.  Some 
looked  ready  to  tumble  down  before  many  years. 
The  light  breeze  stirred  to  motion  the  tall  weeds 
which  had  grown  up  in  many  of  the  least-used  parts 
of  the  marble  roads,  arches,  and  heavy  stone  railings. 
In  some  places  the  crop  was  very  luxuriant.  "  It  is 
just  as  the  prophet  declared,"  said  Dr.  Clinton.  "  In 
the  habitation  of  dragons,  where  each  lay,  shall  be 
grass,  with  reeds  and  rushes." 

Into  the  gardens,  with  the  trees  five  centuries  old, 
their  branches  held  up  by  supporting  timbers,  up  and 
over  the  grottoed  slopes,  and  on  the  top  of  Coal  Hill, 
they  surveyed  the  strange  scene.  It  was  from  the 
north  side  of  the  Purple  City,  upon  which  they  now 
looked,  that  the  Empress  Dowager  and  the  court  had 
fled.  Of  the  woman  the  natives  spoke  as  "  the  rider 
upon  a  tiger."  It  is  said  that  the  primitive  Mexi- 
cans, on  first  beholding  mounted  Spaniards,  thought 
that  horse  and  rider  were  one  animal.  Foreigners 
in  Peking  were  puzzled  concerning  the  Empress  and 
her  mount,  to  tell  which  was  the  lady  and  which  the 
tiger. 


358  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

Purposely  our  party  kept  out  of  the  Throne  Hall, 
to  which  many  of  the  privileged  visitors  went  first, 
until  most  of  them  had  satiated  their  curiosity,  filled 
their  note-books,  and  snapped  their  cameras.  Then 
they  ascended  the  steps  and  entered  the  great  hall  to 
which,  during  five  centuries,  the  tribute  bearers, 
envoys  of  the  tributary  nations,  from  the  rising  to 
the  setting  sun,  from  sub-polar  snows  to  tropical 
oceans,  had  come.  Here  they  had  done  homage  and 
made  the  Kow-tow,  or  nine  prostrations,  before  the 
dragon  countenance  in  humble  submission  to  China's 
emperor.  It  was  this  humiliating  ceremony  which 
the  ministers  of  Christendom  and  of  enlightened 
Japan  had  refused  to  perform. 

There  was  the  throne  itself,  a  great  three-leaved 
affair.  Over  the  ample  seat  in  the  centre,  with  a 
high  reredos,  two  great  wings  spread  off  from  the 
central  division.  All  was  white  marble  and  jade, 
liberally  sculptured  according  to  the  canons  of  Chi- 
nese art.  Along  the  top  lay  and  leered  dragons, 
each  one  "  swinging  the  scaly  horror  of  his  folded 
tail "  toward  the  central  seat,  his  head  projecting  out- 
ward in  the  air.  Below  the  throne  were  the  three 
steps,  on  the  broad  second  one  of  which  the  sup- 
pliant performed  the  nine  prostrations  or  knocks  of 
the  head. 

All  revery  was  interrupted  by  Dr.  Clinton,  who 
cried  out :  "  Now  is  our  chance.  Are  you  ready  ?  " 


MARRIAGE  BEFORE  THE  DRAGON  THRONE.  359 

"  We  are,"  said  Clarence,  and  the  whole  party 
mounted  the  space  above  the  three  steps  upon  which 
the  throne  itself  stood. 

Thus,  in  the  dragon's  lair,  standing  book  in  hand, 
his  back  to  the  throne  of  the  Flowery  Empire,  with 
Marian  Hopewell  and  Clarence  Burnham  facing  the 
white  jade  dragons,  Dr.  Clinton  began  the  marriage 
service.  Marian  had  given  her  hat  to  the  music 
teacher,  while  she  herself  held  a  bouquet,  which  one 
of  the  Chinese  attendants  in  the  garden  had  gathered 
for  Clarence  for  a  piece  of  silver.  The  young  officer 
had  doffed  his  white  helmet  and  handed  it  to  his  com- 
rade and  friend  Masaro,  who  also  had  removed  his 
cap.  Then  the  service  which  Marian  had  so  often 
heard  her  father,  the  Domine,  read,  sounded  out  in 
the  vast  chamber  :  — 

"  Since  then  it  is  fit  that  you  be  furthered  in  this 
your  work,  the  Lord  God  confirm  your  purpose,  which 
He  hath  given  you ;  and  your  beginning  be  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  who  made  heaven  and  earth." 

Then  their  hands  were  joined  together,  and  in 
accordance  with  the  old  ritual  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  the  rescuer  and  the  rescued  took  the  vows 
of  love,  the  one  to  "maintain,"  the  other  to  "serve 
and  assist,"  and  both  to  keep  faith  and  truth  in  all 
things  to  each  other. 

Then  they  knelt  down  on  the  marble  floor,  where 
for  centuries  had  stood  great  envoys  from  many 


360  IN   THE   MIKADO'S   SERVICE. 

lands,  even  from  the  Chinese  "ends  of  the  earth," 
and  the  blessing  was  given  :  — 

"  The  Lord  our  God  replenish  you  with  His  grace, 
and  grant  that  you  may  live  long  together  in  all  god- 
liness and  holiness." 

*  *  *  *  *  *  * 

In  due  time  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
true  to  old,  sacred  tradition,  recalled  from  China  all 
its  military  forces  except  the  troops  acting  as  a 
legation  guard,  and  the  Ninth  returned  to  the  Philip- 
pines. Masaro  returned  to  Hiroshima ;  and  now, 
wearing  the  badge  of  a  captain's  rank,  awaits  fresh 
calls  to  duty. 

******* 

Clarence  Burnham,  however,  feeling  his  country's 
call  less  pressing,  resigned  his  commission.  After 
visiting  Japan  with  his  bride,  he  settled  in  one  of  the 
pretty  cities  in  the  glorious  lake  region  of  central 
New  York,  whence  so  many  of  the  heroes  of  the 
Ninth  had  come.  He  now  edits  a  daily  newspaper, 
which  is  notable  for  its  intelligent  treatment  of  affairs 
in  the  Far  East.  In  their  pretty  sitting  room,  Marian 
Burnham  often  shows  her  friends  a  fine  large  photo- 
graph of  the  dragon  throne  of  China.  It  is  mounted 
and  hung  on  the  walls,  and  near  it  is  another. 

It  is  a  work  of  Japanese  art,  so  tasteful  that  one 
would  not  at  first  think  it  a  monument.  The  original 
was  reared  by  the  relatives  of  Jozuna  in  their  ances- 


MARRIAGE  BEFORE  THE  DRAGON  THRONE.  361 

tral  burial  ground.  Sculptured  in  fairest  letters  is 
the  now  honored  name  of  Jozuna,  with  the  record  of 
his  valor  at  Wei-Hai-Wei.  Set  in  the  stone,  in  the 
finest  of  the  metal-moulder's  art,  is  a  bas-relief  of 
moon  and  clouds  and  flying  geese.  In  the  eyes  of 
his  friends,  Jozuna's  tattooed  breast,  picture,  poem, 
and  prose  inscription  are  proofs  of  an  innocent,  high- 
souled  patriot,  who,  having  fallen  under  cloud  of  sus- 
picion, has  emerged  into  the  glory  of  the  Emperor's 
forgiveness.  Looking  into  the  mirror  of  the  night 
sky,  they  discern  also  the  forgiveness  and  the  vindica- 
tion of  Him  who  said  :  "  Neither  do  I  condemn  thee," 
and,  "  Other  sheep  have  I  which  are  not  of  this  fold ; 
them  also  I  must  bring,  and  they  shall  hear  my  voice." 

So,  underneath  the  art  symbol,  for  Jozuna's  kins- 
men are  now  believers  in  one  God,  is  chiselled  in 
double  script  of  classic  Chinese  and  Japanese  hira- 
gana :  — 

"  We  all  with  unveiled  face,  reflecting  as  a  mirror 
the  glory  of  the  Lord,  are  transformed  into  the  same 
image  from  glory  to  glory  as  from  the  Lord,  the 
Spirit." 


THE  ROMANCE  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY  SERIES 

THE       ROMANCE 
OF     DISCOVERY: 

A   THOUSAND   YEARS    OF    EXPLORATION,   ETC. 

By  Wm.  Elliot  Griffis,   D.D. 
Three  volumes  $1.50  each  ;  or  the  set  in  a  box,  $4.50 


It  is  one  of  the  most  useful  and  entertaining  books.  Dr. 
Griffis  has  shown  how  the  dryest  facts  of  history  are  really 
full  of  romance,  if  we  look  beneath  the  surface  and  note  the 
relation  one  to  another,  and  he  presents  these  facts  in  a  most 
attractive  form.  It  is  an  admirable  introduction  to  the  study 
of  history  and  cannot  fail  to  interest  every  reader  old  and 
young.  —  Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle. 

¥ 

This  book  is  to  be  commended,  not  only  for  its  making  an 
important  epoch  of  history  inviting  to  the  general  reader,  but 
for  its  skillful  putting  of  the  facts  in  their  true  historical  per- 
spective, in  spite  of  the  flavor  of  romance  which  is  given  to 
the  story.  —  The  Advance. 


In  "The  Romance  of  Discovery"  Dr.  W.  E.  Griffis 
describes  the  explorations  which  have  for  their  object  chiefly 
the  occupation  of  new  territory.  Of  course  it  deals  chiefly  with 
the  expeditions  hither  from  different  European  countries.  It 
is  written  in  the  author's  familiar  spirited  and  enjoyable 
manner,  groups  the  result  of  much  investigation  in  an  avail- 
able form,  and  is  thoroughly  readable  throughout,  which 
cannot  be  said  of  all  such  books.  —  The  Congregationalist. 


THE  ROMANCE  OF  AMER- 
ICAN   COLONIZATION: 

HOW  THE  FOUNDATION  STONES 
OF  OUR  HISTORY  WERE  LAID 


This  is  a  volume  that  will  be  of  unending  interest  to  any 
bright  boy  or  girl  old  enough  to  read  history,  and  it  is  likely 
to  lay  the  foundation  for  a  life-long  love  for  historical  study. 
While  it  is  all  history,  it  is  not  all  of  history. —  Bookseller, 
Newsdealer  and  Stationer. 

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Though  interesting  to  old  readers  it  is  primarily  a  book  for 
young  people,  and  boys  and  girls  will  turn  its  pages  with 
quickening  interest.  When  they  have  finished  it  they  have 
not  only  been  entertained,  but  they  have  received  instruction 
in  a  subject  which  is  of  vital  interest  to  every  one  of  them  — 
the  formation  and  making  of  their  country.  Nothing  better 
in  general  reading  can  be  given  our  young  people  than  this 
book. — Library  Bulletin. 


THE        ROMANCE 
OF       CONQUEST: 

THE    STORY   OF   AMERICAN   EXPANSION 
THROUGH    ARMS    AND     DIPLOMACY 

The  book  is  splendidly  written,  and  is  a  distinct  addition  to 
the  history  of  our  country. — Christian  Observer. 

¥ 

Dr.  Griffis  is  interesting  on  any  subject  he  chooses  to  il- 
luminate, and  it  is  needless  to  say  that  this  book  on  so  impor- 
tant and  timely  a  topic  as  American  expansion  is  of  unusual 
interest.  —  Cumulative  Book  Index. 


THE  PATHFINDERS 
of  the  REVOLUTION 

A  STORY  OF  THE  GREAT  MARCH 
INTO  THE  WILDERNESS  AND  LAKE 
REGION  OF  NEW  YORK  IN  1779. 


By    William  E.   Griffis. 

Romance    of    American    History 
Mikado's  Service,"  Etc. 

316  pages.     Illustrated.     Cloth  ,$1.50. 


Author    of    "The     Romance    of    American    History    Series,"    "In    the 
Mikado's  Service,"  Etc. 


This  volume  is  a  valuable  piece  of  historic  fiction,  dealing 
as  it  does  with  a  war  episode  very  little  known.  It  is  enriched 
by  a  great  deal  of  Iroquois  folklore  and  legend. —  Outlook. 


Pure  history  with  a  love  story  is  not  all  this  book  contains. 
There  is  inspiration  in  it,  and  a  breadth  of  view  which  deserves 
its  being  read  by  every  resident  of  New  York. —  The  Ithaca 
Journal. 

¥ 

This  is  history  told  in  the  form  of  a  story,  rather  than  a 
fictitious  story  sustained  by  a  few  historical  facts.  The 
author  relates  the  history  in  such  a  lifelike  manner  that  it  is 
in  full  keeping  with  the  vein  of  fiction  which  adds  interest  to 
the  book.  It  makes  history  fascinating  without  detracting 
from  the  truth. —  The  Advance. 


"  The  Pathfinders  of  the  Revolution  "  takes  up  a  unique  and 
exceptional  period  in  history.  The  author  has  followed  all 
the  historical  data  procurable,  and  he  has  made  not  only  a 
most  interesting  story,  but  has  portrayed  a  beautiful  picture 
of  a  most  beautiful  country.  It  is  a  story  rich  in  Iroquois 
Indian  lore  and  a  charming  episode  set  in  a  framework  of 
one  of  the  most  striking  periods  of  our  Revolutionary  his- 
tory.—  San  Francisco  Call. 


BOSTON      W.  A.  WILDE  COMPANY      CHICAGO 


WITH    PERRY 
ON   LAKE   ERIE 

A     TALE     OF     1812 


By  James  Otis 
307  pp.     Cloth,  $1.50 


Characters  and  incidents  largely  historical.     A  lively  ren- 
dering of  a  memorable  event.  —  The  Outlook. 


Graphically  does  Mr.  Otis  tell  the  story  of  the  naval  battle 
won  by  Commodore  Perry.  The  well-known  tale,  rehearsed 
in  a  new  manner,  though  with  strict  adherence  to  history,  is 
given  in  the  first  person  by  a  boy,  who,  with  the  Commo- 
dore's young  brother,  was  concerned  in  all  the  important 
events  of  that  battle,  as  well  as  in  previously  warding  off  the 
capture  of  Presque  Isle.  It  is  one  of  the  best  of  Revolution- 
ary tales,  in  manner,  facts,  and  interest,  published  within  the 
last  year  or  two,  and  the  covers  are  attractive.  —  The  Literary 
World. 


An  account  of  the  brave  but  often  fruitless  struggles  and 
attempts  of  young  Commodore  Perry  to  get  into  fighting 
trim  the  famous  Lake  Erie  fleet,  handicapped  as  he  was  by 
lack  of  men  and  material.  The  author  has  in  no  wise  de- 
parted from  the  strict  truth,  as  given  by  the  best  historians, 
and  it  is  this  fact  which  renders  his  entertaining  story  partic- 
ularly valuable  as  a  book  for  the  young.  —  Dial. 


With  Preble  at  Tripoli 

A  STORY  OF  "OLD  IRONSIDES" 
AND    THE    TRIPOLITAN    WAR 

BY  JAMES  OTIS 

349  pages.     Cloth.     I2mo.     $1.50 

Second  Volume  in  "  The  Great  Admiral  Series" 


It  is  a  typical,  dashing,  instructive,  and  thrilling  story.  It 
is  intended  for  boys,  but  there  is  hardly  a  person,  young  or 
old,  who  would  not  be  intensely  interested  in  it.  Such  a 
book  as  this  should  be  welcomed  by  every  parent. — Boston 
Journal. 

This  volume  gives  us  a  most  vivid  description  of  the  ex- 
ploits of  the  old  "Constitution"  and  the  brave  men  under 
Commander  Treble's  command.  It  is  of  the  best  juvenile 
literature. —  The  Indianapolis  Journal. 

It  is  a  thrilling  account  of  the  loss  of  the  "Philadelphia," 
and  of  the  most  famous  "cutting  out"  party  in  our  naval 
history.  It  adds  a  second  volume  to  one  of  our  most  inter- 
esting series  of  books  for  young  people. —  The  Dial. 

The  ever-stimulating  account  of  "Old  Ironsides"  and  her 
famous  campaign  against  the  Tripolitan  pirates  forms  the 
basis  of  one  of  Mr.  Otis's  best  stories ;  correct  in  its  historical 
facts,  interesting  from  beginning  to  end,  it  will  be  welcomed 
not  only  by  the  younger  reader,  but  by  the  older  one  as  well. 
—  The  Presbyterian. 


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